Speakers V
Viola Vaughn
Viola M. Vaughn is the founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Health Education and Prevention Strategies Alliance (WHEPSA) and 10,000 Girls programme in Kaolack, Senegal. An American with an Ed.D. from Columbia University’s renowned Teacher’s College in New York, she acquired considerable administrative and teaching experience in health care and education in both the U.S. and six African countries, including Senegal.
In 2000 she and her husband, Jazz musician Sam Sanders, made the decision to emigrate to Senegal with their family. Home-schooling her grandchildren led to some local curiosity in their community in Koalack. The idea for 10,000 girls sprouted after a 9-year-old girl asked Viola to help her finish third grade. The organization now reaches over 2,000 girls, has the first bookmobile going to rural areas of Senegal, hosts Democracy camps, and also teaches skills like sewing and baking (and e-marketing).
Mike Veseth
Mike Veseth is Robert G. Albertson Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Puget Sound, where he hastaught since 1975. He was named Washington Professor of the Year 2010 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. He is an authority on the political economy of globalization and the global wine market. He was Academic Advisor to the award-winning educational website for the PBS/WGBH series, The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy (2002). Professor Veseth has received a number of teaching awards and academic honors. His book Globaloney, was named a Best Business Book of 2005 by Library Journal.
Jill Vialet
Playworks is the only organization in the country that provides trained, full-time program coordinators, called “coachesJill Vialet,” to low-income schools in major urban areas to focus on recess and play to support learning. Playworks brought play and physical activity to more than 130,000 children in 300 schools in 23 US cities in the 2011-12 school year. Jill was selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2004 and was named to the Forbes Impact 30 as one of the 30 leading social entrepreneurs worldwide. She was also recognized by the Womens’ Sports Foundation’s 40 for 40 list of women who have made a significant impact on society after playing sports in high school or college during the 40 years of the Title IX era.
Ambassador Mauro Vieira
Ambassador Mauro Vieira was the Brazilian Ambassador to Argentina prior to being appointed Ambassador to the United States. He holds a JD from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and graduated from Instituto Rio-Branco, the Brazilian diplomatic academy.
Paul Volcker
Mr. Volcker was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from August 1979 to August 1987, and is credited with the leading role in ending a period of high and rising inflation and restoring a base for sustained growth. Initially appointed to that position by President Carter for a four-year term, he was reappointed in 1983 by President Reagan. Upon completion of his second term as Chairman, Mr. Volcker returned to private life, joining as Chairman of the firm of James D. Wolfensohn Inc., a company concentrating on the provision of investment banking services to a limited number of large domestic and international organizations. He retired as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wolfensohn & Co., Inc. upon the merger of that firm in 1996 with the Bankers Trust Company.
Vamik Volkan
Vamik Volkan is a world renowned psychoanalyst, scholar, adviser, writer and speaker. He is the recipient of many international awards, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is co-chair of International Dialogues, an organization that brings together unofficial representatives from various parts of the world to examine world affairs from a psychopolitical angle.