Ambassador Christopher Hill served as a peace corps volunteer in the Republic of Cameroon from 1974 - 1976 before joining the State Department in 1977. Throughout his diplomatic career, he served as Ambassador of the United States to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia from 1996 - 1999, Special Envoy to Kosovo from 1998-1999, Ambassador to Poland from 2000 - 2004, and Ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2004 - 2005. Ambassador Hill went on to be appointed Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and the head of delegation for the 'six-party talks' that aimed to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis of 2005. President Barrack Obama nominated him for the post of US Ambassador to Iraq in 2009. After retiring from the State Department, Ambassador Hill is currently the Chief Advisor to the Chancellor for Global Engagement and Professor of the Practice in Diplomacy at the University of Denver. Prior to this position, he was the Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, a position he held from September 2010 to December 2017. He is also the author of Outpost: A Diplomat at Work.

Dr. Suisheng (Sam) Zhao is Professor and Director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. A founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary China, he is a member of the Board of Governors of the US Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, a member of National Committee on US-China Relations, a Research Associate at the Fairbanks Center for East Asian Research in Harvard University, and an honorary jianzhi professor at Beijing University, Renmin University, China University of International Relations, Fudan University and Shanghai Foreign Studies University. A Campbell National Fellow at Hoover Institution of Stanford University, he was Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Washington College in Maryland, Associate Professor of Government and East Asian Politics at Colby College in Maine and visiting assistant professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at University of California-San Diego.

He received his Ph.D. degree in Political Science from the University of California-San Diego, M.A. degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri and B.A. and M.A. degrees in Economics from Peking University. He is the author and editor of more than ten books.

Ambassador John Beyrle was elected Chairman of the U.S. Russia Foundation on October 2018. Prior to this appointment, Ambassador Beyrle served as an American diplomat for more than three decades in foreign postings and domestic assignments focused on Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Russia. He was twice appointed ambassador: to Bulgaria (2005-08) and to Russia (2008-12). During the latter assignment he led the implementation of policies resulting in improved U.S.-Russian relations, highlighted by the signing of the START nuclear arms reduction treaty, Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and liberalized visa formalities.

Ambassador Beyrle’s diplomatic service included two earlier tours at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, including as deputy chief of mission. He also served as counselor for political and economic affairs at the U.S. embassy in the Czech Republic, and a member of the U.S. delegation to the CFE arms control negotiations in Vienna. His Washington assignments included special adviser to the secretary of state for the New Independent States, and director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. He traveled extensively with Secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker as a staff officer in the 1980s, and served as a Pearson Fellow and adviser to Senator Paul Simon, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Ambassador Beyrle received the Presidential Meritorious Service Award during the Administration of George W. Bush, and the Presidential Distinguished Service Award from President Obama. Secretary of State Clinton presented him with the Distinguished Service Award, the State Department’s highest honor. He retired from the Foreign Service in 2012. Ambassador Beyrle serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law and provides consulting services to non-profit and corporate clients.

A native of Muskegon, Michigan, Mr. Beyrle received a B.A. with honors from Grand Valley State University (1975) and an M.S. as a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College (1996), where he later taught as a visiting professor of national security studies. He speaks Bulgarian, Czech, French, German and Russian. He is married to Jocelyn Greene, also a retired Foreign Service officer. They have two daughters.

Anthony Carroll is a practicing corporate attorney with twenty years experience working in international development and investment with a particular emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. His professional assignments have allowed Tony to work on issues involving many African countries including oil and gas/energy, construction material manufacturing, fisheries and textile investments in Ghana. His expertise on WTO issues, cross-border investment and corporate commercial transactions, business registration and the development of business and professional associations.

He provides business, legal and political counsel to numerous companies and developing countries. He possesses an extensive background in investment and intellectual property law both as in house lawyer with a venture capital firm and as an advisor to the international pharmaceutical industry and

Constanze Stelzenmüller, an expert on German, European, and transatlantic foreign and security policy and strategy, is the inaugural Robert Bosch senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings. Prior to working at Brookings, she was a senior transatlantic fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), where she directed the influential Transatlantic Trends survey program. Her areas of expertise include: transatlantic relations; German foreign policy; NATO; the European Union’s foreign, security, and defense policy; international law; and human rights. Stelzenmüller is the former director of GMF’s Berlin office. From 1994 to 2005, she was an editor for the political section of the German weekly DIE ZEIT, where she had also served as defense and international security editor and covered human rights issues and humanitarian crises. From 1988 to 1989, she was a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School. She has also been a GMF campus fellow at Grinnell College in Iowa, a Woodrow Wilson Center public policy scholar in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Remarque Forum—a conference series of the Remarque Institute at New York University. Stelzenmüller’s essays and articles, in both German and English, have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Foreign Affairs, Internationale Politik, the Financial Times, the International New York Times and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Her dissertation, "Direkte Demokratie in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika," was published in 1994 by Nomos. She is also a frequent commentator on American and European radio and television, including Presseclub (ARD), National Public Radio, and the BBC. Stelzenmüller is a governor of the Ditchley Foundation and a fellow of the Royal Swedish Society for War Sciences. She has worked in Germany and the United States, and speaks English, French, German, and Spanish. Stelzenmüller holds a doctorate in law from the University of Bonn (1992), a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1988), and a law degree from the University of Bonn (1985).

Ambassador Dennis Ross is Counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. For more than twelve years, Amb. Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He served two years as special assistant to President Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, and a year as special advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Prior to his service as special Middle East coordinator under President Clinton, Amb. Ross served as director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff in the first Bush
administration. He played a prominent role in U.S. policy towards the former Soviet Union, the unification of Germany and its integration into NATO, arms control negotiations, and the 1991 Gulf War coalition. During the Reagan administration, he served as director of Near East and South Asian affairs on the National Security Council staff and deputy director of the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment. Amb. Ross was awarded the Presidential Medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service by President Clinton, and Secretaries Baker and Albright presented him with the State Department's highest award.

A graduate of UCLA, Amb. Ross wrote his doctoral dissertation on Soviet decisionmaking. His articles have been published in numerous major policy and commentary journals. He is the author of five books on the peace process, the Middle East, and international relations, most recently Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel’s Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny, written with his colleague David Makovsky and published by PublicAffairs in September 2019.

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Dr. Michael J. McNeal has been involved in the DCFR at various times throughout the past twenty years. He received his Ph.D. from JKSIS at the University of Denver, focusing on political theory and international relations. During an academic year in Budapest in 1992, McNeal began an eight year study of the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, making multiple visits to Belgrade, Zagreb, and Ljubljana during the conflicts. This culminated in two periods of work in Sarajevo (resettling IDPs in 1998 and working for the U.S. Embassy and OSCE in 2000). During a year living in Athens, he examined the transnational constituency of Albanians and ethno-national relations in Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and northern Greece. Since then, McNeal has taught disparate subjects in political science at colleges and universities along the Front Range, and co-edited two scholarly volumes, ‘U.S. Approaches to the Arab Uprisings (2017, I.B. Taurus/Bloomsbury),’ and ‘European/Supra-European: Cultural Encounters in Nietzsche’s Philosophy (2020, De Gruyter).’ He has recently contracted to co-edit a third volume entitled ‘Joy and Laughter in Nietzsche’s Philosophy: Alternative Liberatory Politics (Bloomsbury),’ which is slated for publication in winter 2022.

Dr. Kevin Archer is a Teaching Professor, Associate Dean of Student Affairs, and the Director of International Programs at the University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of International Studies. The former Director of International Studies at Point Loma Nazarene University, Dr. Archer has taught extensively on the international political economy, global governance, US foreign policy, and multilateral negotiation theory. Outside of academia, Dr. Archer is the founder and president of the Institute for Global Education – a university operated study abroad program in Vienna, Austria and soon Athens, Greece – as well as a member of the Denver Council on Foreign Relations.

A former Army Ranger and lawyer, Congressman Jason Crow represents Colorado’s Sixth Congressional District, encompassing Aurora and parts of Adams and Douglas Counties. Congressman Crow serves on the Armed Services Committee where he oversees ongoing military operations and defense technology as well as the Subcommittee on Readiness. On the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Representative Crow oversees and creates policy on military intelligence, cybersecurity, special forces operations, and to counter nuclear proliferation and terrorism. Representative Crow is working to find both foreign policy and domestic solutions as a member of : Army Caucus, Ethiopian-American Caucus, Iraq Caucus, Syria Caucus, Congressional Armenian Caucus, Refugee Caucus among others.

Dr. Morgan Bazilian is the Director of the Payne Institute and Professor of Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. Previously, he was Lead Energy Specialist at the World Bank. He has over two decades of experience in the energy sector and is regarded as a leading expert in international affairs, policy, and investment.

Dr. Bazilian holds two Master's degrees and a Ph.D. in areas related to energy systems and markets, and has been a Fullbright fellow. He holds, or has held, several affiliations including at Columbia University, Cambridge University, The Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. He is on the editorial boards of Environmental Research Letters, Energy Strategy Reviews, and Energy Research and Social Science. He has published over 140 articles in learned journals. His book, Analytical Methods for Evergy Diversity and Security is considered a seminal piece in the

area of energy, finance, and security. His work has been published in Science, Nature, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Dr. Bazilian was a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Advisory Council on Energy, and on the Global Advisory Council of the Sustainable Finance Programme at Oxford University. Previously he was a Deputy Director at U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and a senior diplomat at the United Nations. Earlier in his career, he worked in the Irish Government as Principal Advisor to the Energy Minister, and was the Deputy CEO of the Irish National Energy Agency. He was the European Union's lead negotiator on low-carbon technology at the United Nations climate negotiations. He is also Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Fiona Hill is a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institute. She recently served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council. She is co-author of "Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin".

Prior to joining Brookings, Hill was director of strategic planning at the Eurasia Foundation in Washington D.C. From 1991 to 1999, she held a number of positions directing technical assistance and research projects at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, including associate director of the Strengthening Democratic Trilateral Study on Japanese-Russian-U.S. Relations.

Hill has researched and published extensively on issues related to Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, regional conflicts, energy, and strategic issues. Her book with Brookings Senior Fellow Clifford Gaddy, "The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold", was published by Brookings Institution Press in December 2003, and her monograph, "Energy Empire: Oil, Gas and Russia's Revival," was published the London Foreign Policy

Centre in 2004. The first edition of "Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin" was published by Brookings Institution Press in December 2013, also with Clifford Gaddy.

Hill holds a Master's in Soviet studies and a Doctorate in history from Harvard University where she was a Frank Knox Fellow. She also holds a Master's in Russian and modern history from St Andrews University in Scotland, and has pursued studies at Moscow's Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign languages. Hill is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Waleed Abdalati is Director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado and a Professor in the University's Department of Geography. CIRES, established through a cooperative agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is a diverse institute that focuses on understanding the Earth System and its components, as well as the human relationship with our environment. His research interests are in the use of satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques, integrated with in situ observations and modeling to understand how and why the Earth's glaciers and ice sheets are changing and the implications for seal level rise. This work has taken him to the Arctic, the Antarctic and the Patagonian Ice Fields ten times.

Before joining CIRES in 2008, Dr. Abdalati held various positions at NASA in the areas of scientific research,

program management, scientific management, mission science oversight, etc. In 2011 and 2012, he served as NASA Chief Scientist, acting as advisor on agency science matters to the NASA Administrator and NASA leadership, and working with the White House and Congress on matters related to the NASA Science portfolio. Earlier in his career, he worked as an engineer in the aerospace industry. His technical and scientific expertise is complemented by considerable experience communicating with the public, the media, and NASA sponsors and stakeholders.

Dr. Abdalati received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Syracuse University in 1986, a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Colorado in 1991 and 1996 respectively. Dr. Abdalati has received over a dozen professional awards from the White House, NASA, NSF and The American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Ricklef Beutin is a visiting fellow in the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to joining CSIS, he served as chief of staff to German Federal Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. Between 2011 and 2015, he served as chief of staff to several state secretaries of the German Federal Foreign Office. From 2015 to 2016, he headed the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) division and served as deputy head of the Task Force for the German OSCE Chairmanship in 2016. Previous positions in the German Foreign Service include head of the division for Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs and deputy spokeman of the German Permanent Representation to the European Union. From 2005 to 2007, he worked as a foreign policy analyst in the European Commission's policy planning division of the Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA). He holds an M.A. in international affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a degree in law from the University of Bonn, Germany.

Dr. Lewis Griffith holds a Ph.D. in International Studies from the Graduate School of International Studies (now the Korbel School), University of Denver. Specializing in the area of security studies, Dr. Griffith has done significant independent research, to include published work, in the areas of weapons proliferation, humanitarian intervention, and the implications of globalization on the state security policies of non-Western states. While completing his Ph.D., Dr. Griffith also held a number of academic and educational administrative positions, serving as the Project Director of the intercollegiate Rocky Mountain Model United Nations, the Project Director for the Colorado World Affairs Challenge, as well as serving as the Conference Coordinator for the ISSS/ISAC National Conference in 2000. He joined the faculty at Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) in 2003 where he served as Course Director for the Strategy and Warfare Course and the Inter/National Security Course before being named the Department Chair of the Joint Warfighting Department where he oversaw three core ACSC courses, three planning exercises/war-games, a number of external exchange programs, and approximately 30 faculty. Also at ACSC, Dr. Griffith taught the War on Terror research elective and was the all school lecturer on globalization, terrorism, economics and national security, nuclear deterrence, effects based operations, stability and reconstruction operations, as well as the role of the geographic combatant commands in US defense policy and planning.

Prior to ACSC, Dr. Griffith served as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, the University of Colorado-Denver, and Metropolitan State College of Denver. Dr. Griffith is regularly invited to speak on a wide range of international and national security related topics to include serving from 2005-2010 as an adjunct professor to the Ira A Eaker College where he lectured regularly on US National Security and Defense Policy. In the fall of 2010, Lewis joined the faculty of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies. University of Denver where he taught across the security studies curriculum at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

George Sparks has been the president & CEO of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science since November 2004. He spent 24 years in the electronics measurement business at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies. His career included marketing, sales, and general management of global businesses in software, systems, and services.

Prior to joining Hewlett-Packard, Sparks spent nine years in the Air Force as a pilot and as an assistant professor of aeronautics at the United States Air Force Academy (1976-1978). He is a distinguished graduate of the USAF Academy with a bachelor’s in aeronautical engineering, and holds a master’s in aeronautics and astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sparks’ passion is public policy, particularly around science and education. He is a member of the Colorado Forum, Colorado Concern, and is on the boards of Colorado Education Initiative, Colorado Music Hall of Fame, Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, and the Denver School of Science & Technology.

George is the founder of the Institute for Science & Policy, a program of the Museum.

He loves his wife and all of his children.

Colonel Tim Childress is commander of the Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps (AFROTC) Detachment 90, Fort Collins, Colorado. Detachment 90 is one of 145 AFROTC detachments, subordinate to the Holm Center, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. In this capacity, Col Childress leads approximately 200 cadets through a college-level officer training program while serving as the senior Air Force officer at the university, ultimately determining who is commissioned. In addition, Col Childress chairs the Department of Aerospace Studies with university status of full professor and instructs a curriculum covering Foundations of the U. S. Air Force, Air Force History, Leadership and National Security Affairs. Detachment 90 was selected as the AFROTC “Right of Line” award winner for 2019-2020, signifying being the Air Force’s best large ROTC Detachment.
Col Childress received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science in 1994 from Georgia State University and was commissioned through the Georgia Tech ROTC Program. He has commanded at the Flight and Squadron levels, worked on the Air Staff at the Pentagon, and served joint tours at U.S. European Command and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). He also served as the Central Asia Flight Commander for the Air Force’s only Combat Aviation Advisor Squadron spending 3 years as an advisor to partner air forces.

He has deployed in support of numerous contingencies in Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East to include Operation Southern Watch, Operation Joint Endeavor, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Deployment highlights include being the Central Command’s liaison to the US Embassy in Uzbekistan following the terrorist attacks of 11 Sept 2001 and serving as the Chief Strategist of the Coalition Air Force Training Team helping rebuild the Iraqi Air Force. More recently he commanded the GEOINT/MASINT Production Squadron at the National Air & Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) where he led over 600 personnel with a $102 million dollar budget. Prior to his current assignment, he was assigned as the Director of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance for Fifth Air Force (5th AF/A2) where he conducted joint and bilateral planning and engagements to defend Japan, strengthen bilateral interoperability, and respond to regional contingencies.