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Joseph L'Etoile

Joe L'Etoile graduated from the Citadel and was commissioned a Marine Infantry Officer in 1987. He retired from the Marine Corps in 2008.During his twenty years of service he participated in multiple combat, contingency, and counterdrug tours to include service in Kuwait, Somalia, Central America, and four consecutive tours in Al Anbar, Iraq. As a civilian he continues to advise U.S. and allied governments on counterinsurgency operations, to include serving 10 of the last 12 months on the ground in Afghanistan. L'Etoile is currently the Senior Advisor to the U.S. Marine Corps Tactics and Operations Group and a consultant to the Institute for Defense Analysis, the Joint Irregular Warfare Center, the International Security Assistance Force Counterinsurgency Advisory Assistance Team, the United States Central Command and is a Partner and Director of the Irregular Warfare Group - ORBIS Operations LLC.Joe L'Etoile holds a BS degree in business administration and an MS degree in military science.His personal awards include the Bronze Star Medal with combat "V" and two gold stars, The Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with gold star, the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with combat "V" and gold star, and the Combat Action Ribbon with two gold stars.

Peter Laufer

Peter Laufer is an independent journalist, broadcaster and documentary filmmaker who has reported from the front lines of conflict and social change around the world. He is the James Wallace Chair in Journalism at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication and the author of Organic: A Journalist’s Quest to Learn the Truth behind Food Labeling. The Dangerous World of Butterflies, and Wetback Nation, among other titles.

Binka Le Brenton

A resident of the Brazilian Rainforest for more than 20 years, Le Breton’s recent books include, Where the Road Ends: A Home in the Brazilian Rainforest; The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life of Sister Dorothy Stang; and Trapped: Modern Day Slavery in the Brazilian Amazon.

Richard Leakey

Named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Greatest Minds of the 20th Century,” Richard Leakey and his family have made some of the most significant fossil discoveries in history. Dr. Leakey's efforts with paleoanthropology involved not only field research and discoveries but also many years serving as the director of the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and as the head of the Kenya Wildlife Service. Dr. Leakey also became involved in Kenyan politics, serving as Secretary General of Kenyan opposition party Safina, holding an opposition seat in the Kenyan parliament, and acting as head of Kenya’s Civil Service and of a so-called “Dream Team” of technocrats assembled from various fields and backgrounds to tackle management, corruption, and reorganization issues within the Kenyan government. Though he stepped down from his political positions in 2001, Dr. Leakey continues to fight for political justice in Kenya. He also continues to lecture on environmental themes and is currently involved in grassroots wildlife conservation projects.

Ann Lee

Ann Lee is a former investment banker, hedge fund partner and is a frequent media commentator on economic issues. In addition to television and radio appearances on Bloomberg, ABC, CBS, CNN, CNBC and NPR, her op-eds have appeared in The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Businessweek, Forbes, and Worth. Ms. Lee is also an adjunct professor of economics and finance at New York University and a former visiting professor at Peking University where she taught macroeconomics and financial derivatives. While she was teaching at Peking University, she also acted as an economic advisor to Chinese economic officials as well as to several large Chinese asset management firms. She was educated at U.C. Berkeley, Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs, and Harvard Business School.

Erika Lee

Erika Lee is an award-winning American historian, Director of the Immigration History Research Center, and the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair in Immigration History at the University of Minnesota. Her scholarly specialties include migration, race and ethnicity; Asian Americans; transnational U.S. history; and immigration law and public policy. Her newest book, The Making of Asian America: A History was published by Simon & Schuster in September, 2015. She is also the author or co-author of the award winning books Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America , (with Judy Yung, Oxford University Press, 2010) and At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 (University of North Carolina Press, 2003) as well as many articles on immigration law and Asian American immigration. She has been awarded numerous national and university fellowships and awards for her research, teaching, and leadership. She is an active public scholar and has been an invited speaker at universities, historical societies, and community organizations around the U.S. and internationally.

Jim Lehrer

For more than three decades, Jim Lehrer has been one of the most respected voices in broadcast news—lauded as an “island of sanity in the madness of television news” by the American Journalism Review.

Daniel Lerch

Daniel is Publications Director of Post Carbon Institute. He is the author of Post Carbon Cities (2007), the first major municipal guidebook on peak oil and global warming, and the lead editor of The Post Carbon Reader (2010), a collection of original essays by some of the world's most provocative thinkers on the 21st century's interconnected sustainability crises. One of the few experts specializing in local government responses to global fossil fuel depletion, Daniel has delivered presentations and workshops to elected officials, planners, and other audiences across the United States, as well as in Canada, Europe, and Latin America. He has been interviewed in numerous radio, video, and print outlets, and has been quoted in major publications including The New York Times and Business Week.

Daniel has worked with urban sustainability and planning issues for nearly fifteen years in the public, private and non-profit sectors. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from Rutgers University in New Jersey and a Master of Urban Studies from Portland State University in Oregon.

Margaret Lewis

Margaret Lewis is an Associate Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School. Professor Lewis travels frequently to Asia, having recently given presentations at National Taiwan University, Renmin University School of Law, and National University of Singapore, among other universities. Her publications have appeared in the Virginia Journal of International Law, New York University Law Review, and the Asian Journal of Criminology. Professor Lewis received her J.D., magna cum laude, from NYU School of Law, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif and was a member of Law Review. She received her B.A., summa cum laude, from Columbia University and also studied at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. 

Stephen Lewis

Mr. Lewis was the U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa from 2001-2006, and his extensive career in the fields of diplomacy, politics, activism and humanitarian work includes roles as Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF and Canadian Ambassador to the U.N.

Sheri Liao

Sheri Liao is one of China's best-known environmental activists and journalists. In 1996, she founded the Global Village of Bejing, a grassroots environmental organization that has received much international praise, including commendations from the United Nations and the White House. She is also producer of the weekly Chinese TV program "Time for Environment." Ms. Liao holds a master's degree in philosophy from Zhongshan University. She is a former researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Bernard Lietaer

Bernard Lietaer is one of the most knowledgeable people in the world about money and financial systems. During his career in finance and monetary system related endeavors, Bernard has held an unusually diverse array of positions. As a senior central bank executive in Belgium, he was one of the two principal architects of the “ECU,” the convergence mechanism that developed into the European single currency (“Euro”). In recognition of his leadership as General Manager of one of the world’s most successful offshore currency funds, Business Week identified him as the world’s top currency trader in 1991. He was also a professional consultant for more than a dozen years to multinational corporations on four continents; an advisor to developing countries in Latin America on how to optimize hard currency earnings; a Professor of International Finance; and President of the most comprehensive and cost-effective electronic payment system in the world.  He is currently a research fellow at UC Berkeley, California.

Kelle Louaillier

Kelle Louaillier joined Corporate Accountability International more than two decades ago, serving as director of international outreach, campaign director, development director, and associate director prior to becoming executive director in 2007. Under her leadership Corporate Accountability International has helped move General Electric out of the nuclear weapons business and secure the World Health Organization's global tobacco treaty, the world's first corporate accountability treaty. In addition Louaillier has overseen the launch of the campaigns Challenge Corporate Control of Water and Challenge Corporate Abuse of Our Food. Louaillier began her social change career by teaching math in the Central African Republic with the Peace Corps and working to empower homeless youth in Seattle. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French, Philosophy, and Mathematics from Seattle University

Jane Lubchenco

As head of NOAA, Jane Lubchenco leads our nation’s efforts to meet environmental and ecosystem challenges. A MacArthur “genius” fellow, past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the National Academy of Science, and former Professor at Oregon State University, Dr. Lubchenco is internationally recognized for her ground-breaking research on the ways in which human activities have unintentionally caused shifts in environmental stability.

Ambassador William H. Luers

Ambassador William H. Luers is the Director of The Iran Project and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. He was President of the United Nations Association of the USA (1999-2009) and President of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC (1986-1999).   Prior to his move to New York, Luers had a 31 year career in the Foreign Service. He served as US Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1983-1986) and Venezuela, (1978-1982) and held numerous posts in Italy, Germany, the Soviet Union, and in the Department of State.  Luers has been an adjunct at several universities in addition to Columbia. He was also the director’s visitor at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Studies in 1982-1983. Born in Springfield, Illinois, Luers received his B.A. from Hamilton College and his M.A. from Columbia University following four years in the United States Navy. He is an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He speaks Spanish, Russian and Italian.

Morgan Luker

Morgan Luker is an Assistant Professor of Music (Ethnomusicology) at Reed College. His research focuses on music and cultural policy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a special emphasis on the cultural politics of contemporary tango.

Marc Lynch

Marc Lynch is professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and director of their Institute for Middle East Studies, a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a contributing editor at the "Monkey Cage" blog for the Washington Post and the author of The Arab Uprising and Voices of the New Arab Public.



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