Board & Advisors
Ploughshares is led by Board Chair Gretchen Hund, President Dr. Emma Belcher, and Executive Director Elizabeth Warner.
Board Members
Philip Ames
Secretary
Vice President, Investment Management Division, Goldman Sachs
Philip Ames
Secretary
Vice President, Investment Management Division, Goldman Sachs
San Francisco, CA
Philip Hans Ames is a financial advisor employed by Goldman, Sachs & Co. in San Francisco, California. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Mr. Ames worked as a Hedge Manager at Tuttle Risk Management Services and as a Financial Analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities.
Mr. Ames has an MBA in Finance from Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics from UCLA.
Alen Amini
Project Leader, Boston Consulting Group
Alen Amini
Project Leader, Boston Consulting Group
Washington, D.C.
Alen Amini is a 2022 Atlantic Council Millennium fellow, a participant in the 2024 Executive Leadership Intensive, and a project leader at Boston Consulting Group. He was born in Ohio and was later a math teacher and vice principal in Arkansas. Amini has experience running a rug business and a food truck. He has a passion for geopolitics and is a Council on Foreign Relations term member, a Presidential Leadership scholar, and a Fulbright alum. Amini graduated from Harvard University, where he was a Center for Public Leadership fellow. He has an MBA from Dartmouth College and earned a computer science degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Emma Belcher
President
Dr. Emma Belcher
President
Washington, DC
World-renowned expert on nuclear weapons policy, Dr. Emma Belcher is the President of Ploughshares. In leading the largest foundation singularly focused on reducing the threat of nuclear weapons, Dr. Belcher is an authority on the threat of nuclear weapons and the nuances of nuclear weapons policy. She has experience in a variety of media concerning the threat of nuclear weapons.
Although she’s spent the past 13 years working for foundations, her experience extends beyond philanthropy. She began her career as a Public Affairs Officer at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC; served as a national security and international affairs advisor in Australia’s Department of the Prime Minister; and held multiple fellowships at prestigious organizations, including the Council on Foreign Relations and Harvard University’s Belfer Center during and after earning her doctorate degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Dr. Belcher is available to speak on nuclear weapons reduction, philanthropy, US foreign policy as it relates to nuclear weapons, the importance of intersectionality and inclusion in advocating for peace, and related topics.
To read, view, or listen to Dr. Belcher’s previous media appearances, visit the Ploughshares website. Her 2019 TED Talk on the importance of confronting, humanizing and ultimately solving the existential threat of nuclear weapons can be viewed here.
Please direct all media inquiries to Lauren Billet at lbillet@ploughshares.org.
Skyler Brown
Goldman Sachs Wealth Advisor
Skyler Brown
Goldman Sachs Wealth Advisor
Seattle, WA
Skyler is a Goldman Sachs private wealth advisor for ultra high net worth individuals, families, and endowments. He earned an MBA with the Global Business Certificate at the University of Washington’s Foster School with portfolio risk management and behavioral finance concentrations. Before pursuing graduate school, Skyler served as a special forces green beret with the Persian Farsi language specialty. His professional military travel included extended stays in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Prior to volunteering for the green berets, Skyler served as a high altitude missile defense officer and worked in South Korea. Skyler completed his undergraduate education at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He continues to volunteer on Congressional nomination boards for the service academies. He also serves on the University of Washington Alumni Association board as Treasurer, and on the Pioneer Human Services board’s finance and audit committee.
Shannon Sedgwick Davis
CEO of Bridgeway Foundation
Shannon Sedgwick Davis
CEO of Bridgeway Foundation
San Antonio, Texas
Shannon Sedgwick Davis is the CEO of Bridgeway Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to ending and preventing mass atrocities around the world, and the author of To Stop a Warlord. As an attorney, activist, and passionate advocate for social justice, Ms. Sedgwick Davis has guided Bridgeway Foundation in pioneering solutions to seemingly intractable issues around the world. Ms. Sedgwick Davis and the Bridgeway Foundation have been credited for their pivotal role in mobilizing awareness, civilian protection, and recovery efforts against the Lord’s Resistance Army and its leader, Joseph Kony, the first-ever indictee of the International Criminal Court.
Before joining Bridgeway Foundation in 2007, Ms. Sedgwick Davis served as Vice President of Geneva Global and was the Director of Public Affairs at the International Justice Mission (IJM).
Ms. Sedgwick Davis is an honors graduate of McMurry University and Baylor Law School. Ms. Sedgwick Davis currently serves on the advisory council of The Elders and is a board member of several organizations including Humanity United, charity: water, Verdant Frontiers, and formerly, TOMS.
John Feikema
Principal at Feikema and Associates
John Feikema
Principal at Feikema and Associates
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Current Principal at Feikema and Associates; most recently providing consulting services for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and providing leadership in Healthcare information technology within HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator for Healthcare IT from early 2012 through 2015.
From 2010 until January 2012, John was President and Chief Strategy Officer of ABILITY Network (FKA VisionShare, Inc.) and prior to that, President and CEO of VisionShare since 2000. Under his leadership VisionShare/ABILITY grew from a security consulting practice to become the leading provider of a secure national healthcare information network supporting thousands of hospitals, clinics ad long term care facilities.
Mr. Feikema joined Vision Share from CDXC Corporation, where he served as President and was responsible for sales, strategy, product development and corporate financing. Feikema’s professional experience includes four years at Imation where he held a variety of executive and general management positions. Prior to Imation, Feikema spent 17 years in various management roles at 3M. During his time at 3M he worked with divisions that took advantage of the company’s industry-leading market positions in printing and medical imaging and helped create and enhance new digital businesses in these markets.
He has served as Director on numerous business-related boards over the span of his career.
John earned a BS in Chemistry and a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Connie Foote
Psychologist and philanthropist
Connie Foote
Psychologist and philanthropist
Minneapolis – St. Paul, MN
Connie is a psychologist, musician/singer and community volunteer. She has two children, and served as board president of the non-profit foundation for her public school district. She holds an M.A. in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota and is a former member of the Donor Advisory Council at the Saint Paul Foundation. Connie has been a longtime supporter of Ploughshares, since 1995, and was engaged for few years with the Mother's Day for Peace Campaign. She also has regularly attended our Washington policy briefings. As an empty nester, she moved from the suburbs to the city, and is looking forward to taking advantage of the city. She has expressed interest in the past in Pakistan and nuclear material.
Gretchen Hund
Chair
Former Director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Center for Global Security
Gretchen Hund
Chair
Former Director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Center for Global Security
Greater Seattle Area, WA
Gretchen Hund is the former Director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) Center for Global Security. In that role, she focused on identifying emerging issues that may have national security implications. Ms. Hund convened experts to identify and investigate emerging threats that are not in the mainstream of current debate but believed to have grave consequence. She assisted in translating technical detail into digestible information that decision makers can use in setting policy, including understanding the threats and challenges found in the intersection of climate change and national security and how integrated climate models can be better tailored to help inform decisions on infrastructure resilience.
Ms. Hund served with Battelle and PNNL from 1990-2018. From 1985-1990, she was a senior analyst at the US Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, specializing in environmental issues including radioactive waste management and wastes in the marine environment. Ms. Hund holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geology from Middlebury College and a Master of Science degree in Political Science with a concentration in science, technology, and public policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Shamil Idriss
CEO of Search for Common Ground
Shamil Idriss
CEO of Search for Common Ground
Washington, D.C.
Shamil Idriss serves as the CEO of Search for Common Ground, the world’s largest dedicated peacebuilding organization. There, Shamil has led efforts to end violent conflict in more than 35 countries globally, including some of the most devastating conflict zones in the Middle East and Africa.
His extensive experience includes an appointment by United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Deputy Director of the UN Alliance of Civilizations. In this role, he worked closely with policymakers to implement conflict prevention projects, played a pivotal role at the World Economic Forum in establishing the Council of 100 Leaders, and focused on innovative conflict prevention strategies.
Additionally, as CEO of Soliya, Shamil led trailblazing efforts in leveraging interactive media for cross-cultural education. His pioneering work resulted in the establishment of the J. Christopher Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative announced by President Barack Obama in February 2015, and the subsequent announcement by the European Commission of their dedicated fund to expand virtual exchange in 2017.
With a background in Economics and Philosophy from Swarthmore College, Shamil has authored numerous publications on conflict transformation and peacebuilding. He has also delivered numerous presentations, media appearances, lectures, and keynote addresses on international conflict resolution, media and social change, Islam and West- Muslim World relations, and social entrepreneurship. Most recently, he delivered a TEDx presentation on “Truths About Violent Conflict.”
Ethan Kelly
General Sales Manager, Bonneville Seattle Media Group
Ethan Kelly
General Sales Manager, Bonneville Seattle Media Group
Seattle, WA
Ethan Kelly is a seasoned media advertising and PR professional with over 25 years in media advertising sales, most of that time in local market advertising sales leadership roles. In addition to his tenure with one of the radio industries most respected audio content platforms, KIRO Radio News-Talk in Seattle, he has also overseen sales for the Seattle market’s leading Conservative talk platform, KTTH Radio.
In these roles he led a sales team that was consistently number one in the Seattle audio advertising market in advertising revenues through a passionate belief in developing direct relationships with both start-up and established business marketers. This included prospecting for new accounts, developing client needs analysis, message creation and on-air plus digital advertising campaign recommendations based upon specific consumer targeting. Prior to his time with Bonneville’s Seattle division, Ethan managed the advertising sales operations for television stations in Wisconsin and Ohio.
Before entering the media advertising business, he did a multi-year stint in the front office of the Seattle Mariners in sales and PR. He began his career working in politics and government serving in both media relations and speech writing capacities for the Washington State Democratic Caucus and later the state’s Department of Labor and Industries. Though a fierce pro-business independent, Ethan has provided media advice to like-minded candidates from both political parties in the years since being a Democratic National Convention delegate and early volunteer for Gary Hart’s first Presidential campaign. Ethan earned his BA degree at the Evergreen State College studying political history and journalism.
Amy McGrath
Former Marine Corps fighter pilot
Amy McGrath
Former Marine Corps fighter pilot
Georgetown, KY
Amy graduated from the US Naval Academy and was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer in 1997 and served 20 years in the Marines. First, she became a F/A-18 weapons systems officer (backseater), completed two combat deployments, and flew 89 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2002, as a weapons systems officer, Amy became the first woman in the Marine Corps to fly a combat mission in an F/A-18. In 2004, she transitioned to become an F/A-18 pilot and completed a second operational tour deploying to Japan and operating in the Pacific. She completed her third combat deployment in Helmand Province Afghanistan in 2010.
After her operational flying tours, Amy served as a Congressional Fellow advising a senior member of the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee on defense and foreign policy. Subsequently, she served in the Pentagon as Marine Corps’ liaison to the State Department and other federal agencies. She earned a master’s degree in global security from Johns Hopkins University, and she is a graduate of the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction’s Program for Emerging Leaders at the National Defense University. Her final assignment was as a senior instructor in the Political Science Department at the US Naval Academy teaching US government and national security courses before retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and moving back home to Kentucky to raise her family. There, she ran races for the US House and Senate.
J. Michael McQuade
Director of the Program on Emerging Technology, Scientific Advancement & Global Policy at the Belfer Center
J. Michael McQuade
Director of the Program on Emerging Technology, Scientific Advancement & Global Policy at the Belfer Center
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
J. Michael McQuade is the Director of the Program on Emerging Technology, Scientific Advancement & Global Policy at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in the Harvard Kennedy School. The program is dedicated to research, dialogue and training at the intersection of technology and policy.
Prior to this role, Dr. McQuade served as the Vice President for Research and Special Advisor to the President of Carnegie Mellon University, where he provided operational leadership and strategic direction for the University’s research enterprise and advocated for the role that science, technology, and innovation play for national security and economic competitiveness.
McQuade has had a distinguished private sector career in roles ranging from developing and commercializing new and novel technologies to executive operational leadership and general management. He served as Senior Vice President for Science & Technology at United Technologies Corporation, where he managed research, engineering, and development activities across a broad range of high-technology products and services for the global aerospace, defense, building systems, and energy industries. Previously, he led the medical products division of 3M’s global healthcare portfolio and served as the
President of Eastman Kodak’s Health Imaging business.
Dr. McQuade has been deeply involved in the development of national and international policies related to science and technology investments and regulations, national security, and economic competitiveness. He has served as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and of the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board, was a founding member of the Defense Innovation Board, and a member of the National Academies’ National Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable.
He holds Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. degrees from Carnegie Mellon University. He received his doctorate in experimental high energy physics for research performed at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory on charm quark production.
Don Mordecai, MD
Treasurer
National Leader for Mental Health and Wellness for The Permanente Federation
Don Mordecai, MD
Treasurer
National Leader for Mental Health and Wellness for The Permanente Federation
Oakland, California
Don Mordecai, MD, is the National Leader for Mental Health and Wellness for The Permanente Federation. In this role, he leads national initiatives for Kaiser Permanente in the areas of care delivery, reducing the impact of childhood trauma (ACE’s), stigma reduction and the use of technology to improve outcomes in mental health and addiction care. He works across the organization to identify and deliver innovative ways to improve the mental health and wellness of individuals and communities through prevention and strategies that address mental and physical health issues upstream of their causes.
Don is also Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Don and his wife, Corinna Haberland, MD, have two sons and live in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In addition to being long term supporters of Ploughshares, they focus their philanthropy on international health care and crisis response, and the environment.
Scott Sagan
Co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation
Scott Sagan
Co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation
San Francisco, CA
Scott D. Sagan is the Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, the Mimi and Peter Haas University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and Senior Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University. He also serves as Chairman of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Committee on International Security Studies. Before joining the Stanford faculty, Sagan was a lecturer in the Department of Government at Harvard University and served as special assistant to the director of the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon.
Ben Rhodes
National security advisor and consultant
Ben Rhodes
National security advisor and consultant
Washington, DC
Ben Rhodes served as the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting from 2009 to 2017. In that capacity, he participated in nearly all of President Obama’s key decisions, and oversaw the President’s national security communications, speechwriting, public diplomacy and global engagement programming. He led the secret negotiations with the Cuban government which resulted in the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, and served as an advisor on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran. Rhodes is currently a consultant with the Obama Foundation and continues to advise President Obama on international issues.
Prior to joining the Obama Administration, he was a Senior Speechwriter and foreign policy advisor to the Obama campaign. From 2002-2007, he worked for former Congressman Lee Hamilton at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, supporting Hamilton’s work on the 9/11 Commission and Iraq Study Group. A native New Yorker, mostly-suffering Mets, Knicks and Jets fan, Mr. Rhodes has a B.A. from Rice University and an M.F.A from New York University. He is married to Ann Norris, a former senior foreign policy advisor to Senator Barbara Boxer and State Department official. He and his wife have two daughters, Ella and Chloe.
Margaret Tough
Partner, Latham & Watkins
Margaret Tough
Partner, Latham & Watkins
San Francisco, CA
Margaret Tough is a partner at Latham & Watkins, a global law firm comprised of 2100 lawyers with offices in 13 countries. Based in the San Francisco office, Ms. Tough has represented both companies and individuals in complex litigation matters.
Margaret has conducted numerous internal investigations in the United States and around the world. She holds her JD from University of Washington-School of Law in Seattle and a BA with Honors from McGill University. She speaks fluent French.
Elizabeth Warner
Executive Director
Elizabeth Warner
Executive Director
San Francisco, CA
Elizabeth Warner is Executive Director of Ploughshares, where she provides oversight and administration of the foundation’s San Francisco headquarters, and helps ensure organizational alignment between the San Francisco and Washington, DC offices and across multiple departments. Liz works directly with the president and board of directors, and is responsible for leading the organization’s resource development efforts to advance the mission.
Liz’s inspiration for the mission is fueled by her commitment to leaving the world a better place, for her children and for generations to come, and by connecting with the many individuals who share this passion for creating a safe and secure future.
Elizabeth has more than 20 years of experience in non-profit management and fundraising. Prior to joining Ploughshares in 2012, Elizabeth served as the Major Gifts Officer at Paul Newman’s Camp Boggy Creek, a summer camp for children with life-threatening and chronic illnesses. She held previous positions at Partners in Ending Hunger, Planned Parenthood, the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, and the University of Maine’s Tangelwood 4H Camp. Elizabeth has a degree in International Development from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master’s-level Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine.
Michael Wear
Founder, President and CEO of The Center for Christianity and Public Life
Michael Wear
Founder, President and CEO of The Center for Christianity and Public Life
Washington, DC
Michael Wear is the Founder, President and CEO of The Center for Christianity and Public Life, a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution based in the nation’s capitol with the mission to contend for the credibility of Christian resources in public life, for the public good. For well over a decade, he has served as a trusted resource and advisor for a range of civic leaders on matters of faith and public life, including as a White House and presidential campaign staffer. Michael is a leading voice on building a healthy civic pluralism in twenty-first century America. He has argued that the kind of people we are has much to do with the kind of politics we will have.
Michael previously led Public Square Strategies, a consulting firm he founded that helps religious organizations, political organizations, businesses and others effectively navigate the rapidly changing American religious and political landscape.
Tyler Wigg-Stevenson
Associate Priest at St. Paul’s Bloor Street
Tyler Wigg-Stevenson
Associate Priest at St. Paul’s Bloor Street
Toronto, ON
Tyler Wigg-Stevenson is an Associate Priest and the Director of the Ministry Apprenticeship Program (MAP) at St. Paul’s Bloor Street. Prior to entering full-time congregational ministry, he spent most of his career in faith-based advocacy for the abolition of nuclear weapons, as founder of the Two Futures Project and as chair of the World Evangelical Alliance’s nuclear weapons task force. He has written extensively in both popular and academic publications, and is the author of three books: Brand Jesus, Fighting for Peace, and the multiple-award-winning The World Is Not Ours To Save. Tyler holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College, an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and is pursuing his doctorate in theology at the University of Toronto. He has been married since 2005 to Natalie, a theologian, and they have two daughters.
Chairs Emeriti
Lewis Hanchett Butler
Founding board member, community leader
Chair Emeritus
Lewis Hanchett Butler
Founding board member, community leader
Chair Emeritus
San Francisco, CA
Lewis Hanchett “Lew” Butler is the founding Chair of the Ploughshares Board of Directors. Serving as Chair from 1981 until 2005, Lew was part of the historic meeting in Sally Lilienthal’s San Francisco living room that established the idea of Ploughshares. He has dedicated his life to public service across a broad array of fields, including public health, environmental conservation, civic engagement, and the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Lew was one of the first overseas staff members in the Peace Corps, serving as Peace Corps Director in Malaysia from 1962 to 1964. He later served as assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare under the administration of President Richard Nixon. In 1971, Lew became one of the first officials to resign from the Nixon administration in objection to the Vietnam War and President Nixon’s bombing of Cambodia. During his years of public service Lew recreated California Tomorrow in 1984 to deal with California’s future as a multiracial, multilingual and multicultural society where the white population would no longer be a majority, focusing on the education of immigrant children. Later he created the Butler Koshland Fellowships to identify and mentor the next generation of public service leaders, and he helped ensure the successful conversion of the Presidio of San Francisco from an army base to a vital National Park.
Lew continues to work toward the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, recently contributing $1 million to the Ploughshares endowment. Upon his retirement as Chair, Lew was honored with the establishment of the Lew Butler Fund for Innovation, a special fund within the Ploughshares endowment that generates income for the support of new ideas and initiatives for building a safer, more secure world for future generations. His vision and commitment to making his community, his country and the world a better place continues to inspire our work today.
Mary Lloyd Estrin, 1944 – 2020
Board member, Chair 2013 to 2018
Chair Emeritus
Mary Lloyd Estrin, 1944 – 2020
Board member, Chair 2013 to 2018
Chair Emeritus
Mary Lloyd Estrin began serving on the Ploughshares Board of Directors in 1999 and was its Chair from 2013 to 2018. She was program director of the Human Rights and Economic Justice Program at the General Service Foundation, which supports efforts to reduce economic inequity by strengthening worker rights and protections, ensuring a broadly based prosperity, and served as vice president of the John Lloyd Foundation, which has an interest in HIV/AIDS advocacy, education and policy issues. Estrin also served on the steering committee of the Labor and Community Working Group of the Neighborhood Funders Network, and on the Advisory Committee of the LIFT Fund. Estrin served as a trustee of Vassar College, as Board Chair of the Wildwood School, and on local community boards. She is the author of To the Manor Born.
Roger Hale
Former President and CEO, Tennant Co.
Chair Emeritus
Roger Hale
Former President and CEO, Tennant Co.
Chair Emeritus
Roger Hale was the 2nd Chair of the Ploughshares Board of Directors, serving from 2005 until 2013. Prior to his chairmanship, he had been a member of Ploughshares’s Board of Directors since 1995. A native of Minnesota, Hale was president and CEO of Tennant, an industry-leading manufacturer of industrial and commercial floor maintenance equipment, from 1976 to 1998 and was a director of five NYSE companies during his career. He retired in 1999. Hale has served on the boards of the Walker Art Center and Public Radio International. He is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Business School, and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1956-1959.
Terry Gamble Boyer
Chair Emeritus
Terry Gamble Boyer
Chair Emeritus
Advisors
Reza Aslan
Internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions
Reza Aslan
Internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions
Los Angeles, CA
Dr. Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, which has been translated into twenty-eight languages.
He is the founder of AslanMedia, a social media network for news and entertainment about the Middle East and the world, and co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of BoomGen Studios, the premier entertainment brand for creative content from and about the Greater Middle East.
Aslan’s degrees include a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Santa Clara University (Major focus: New Testament; Minor: Greek), a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University (Major focus: History of Religions), a PhD in the Sociology of Religions from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. An Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, he is also a member of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He serves on the board of directors of the Ploughshares, which gives grants for peace and security issues; Narrative Four, which connects people through the exchange of stories; PEN USA, which champions the rights of writers under siege around the world; the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Levantine Cultural Center, which builds bridges between Americans and the Arab/Muslim world through the arts.
Aslan’s first book is the International Bestseller, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, which has been translated into seventeen languages, and named one of the 100 most important books of the last decade. He is also the author of How to Win a Cosmic War (published in paperback as Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in a Globalized Age), as well as editor of two volumes: Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, and Muslims and Jews in America: Commonalties, Contentions, and Complexities.
Aslan is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside and serves on the board of trustees for the Chicago Theological Seminary and The Yale Humanist Community, which supports atheists, agnostics, and humanists at home and abroad. A member of the American Academy of Religions, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the International Qur’anic Studies Association, Aslan’s previous academic positions include the Wallerstein Distinguished Professor of Religion, Community and Conflict at Drew University in New Jersey (2012-2013), and Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Iowa (2000-2003).
Born in Iran, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife, author and entrepreneur, Jessica Jackley and their three sons.
Email:
contact@rezaaslan.com(link sends e-mail)
Twitter:
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J. Brian Atwood
Senior Fellow, Watson Institute, Brown University
J. Brian Atwood
Senior Fellow, Watson Institute, Brown University
Providence, RI
J. Brian Atwood is a Senior Fellow for International and Public Affairs at Watson Institute, Brown University. He is also a professor emeritus at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota and a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution. In the Clinton Administration, Atwood led the State Department transition team and was Under-Secretary of State for Management prior to his appointment as head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he served for six years. In 2001, Atwood served on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Panel on Peace Operations. During the Carter Administration, Atwood served as Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations. Atwood was the first President of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) from 1986 to 1993. He received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award in 1999.
Hon. Lloyd Axworthy
Former Foreign Minister of Canada
Hon. Lloyd Axworthy
Former Foreign Minister of Canada
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Lloyd Axworthy, formerly Canada’s Foreign Minister (1995-2000), is President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Winnipeg. He has held several Cabinet positions and was Director and CEO of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, where he became internationally known for advancing the human security concept. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership on landmines; and received the North-South Institute’s Peace Award for his efforts in establishing the International Criminal Court and the Protocol on child soldiers. In February 2004, he was appointed special envoy for Ethiopia-Eritrea by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
William S. Cohen
Former Secretary of Defense
William S. Cohen
Former Secretary of Defense
Washington, DC
William S. Cohen served as Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton. Under his leadership, the U.S. military conducted the largest air warfare campaign since World War II, in Serbia and Kosovo. Secretary Cohen previously served as a Congressman (R-ME) from 1974 until he was elected to the Senate in 1978. With extensive international expertise, Secretary Cohen joined the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations and chaired the Middle East Study Group from 1989 to 1997. He has chaired and served on numerous other boards, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the School for Advanced International Studies, and the Brookings Institute. He also launched the William S. Cohen Center for International Policy and Commerce at the University of Maine.
Michael Douglas
Actor and UN Messenger of Peace
Michael Douglas
Actor and UN Messenger of Peace
Los Angeles, CA
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He is an advocate of nuclear disarmament, a supporter of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, sits on the board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative and a former member of the Ploughshares Board of Directors. In 1998, he was appointed UN Messenger of Peace by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Gloria Duffy
CEO, Commonwealth Club of California
Gloria Duffy
CEO, Commonwealth Club of California
San Francisco, CA
Gloria Duffy initially came to Ploughshares as its first executive director in 1982. A decade later, she joined the incoming Clinton Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and was credited with negotiating historic agreements with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan to dismantle their nuclear arsenals, and with Russia to prevent the spread of its weapons, materials and know-how. Currently CEO of the Commonwealth Club of California, Duffy serves on the boards of the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation, Occidental College, and others. She holds Ph.D., M. Phil. and M.A. degrees from Columbia University and an A.B. magna cum laude from Occidental College.
Susan Eisenhower
President, Eisenhower Group
Susan Eisenhower
President, Eisenhower Group
Washington, DC
Susan Eisenhower is President of the Eisenhower Group and serves as Chairman of the Eisenhower Institute’s Leadership and Public Policy Programs. She is known for her work in the former Soviet Union and in the energy field. Eisenhower was appointed to the National Academy of Sciences’ standing Committee on International Security and Arms Control, where she served for eight years. In 2000, the Secretary of Energy appointed her to the Baker-Cutler Commission to evaluate U.S. funded nuclear non-proliferation programs in Russia. She has written extensively on nuclear and space issues and has has served on DOE commissions studying the threat of nuclear terrorism and on a blue ribbon panel on the future of nuclear energy.
Scilla Elworthy
Founder, Oxford Research Group
Scilla Elworthy
Founder, Oxford Research Group
London, England
Dr. Scilla Elworthy founded the Oxford Research Group (ORG) in 1982 to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. It is for this work that she was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003 she founded Peace Direct to fund, promote and learn from peace-builders in conflict areas. Since 2005 she has been an adviser to The Elders initiative, and in 2007 was appointed a member of the World Future Council and of the International Task Force on Preventive Diplomacy. Her most recent book is Making Terrorism History, co-authored with Gabrielle Rifkind.
Hal Harvey
President and CEO, ClimateWorks Foundation
Hal Harvey
President and CEO, ClimateWorks Foundation
San Francisco, CA
A former member of Ploughshares’s Board of Directors, Hal Harvey is the CEO and president of ClimateWorks. Previously, Harvey has served as environment program director at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and was the founder and president of the Energy Foundation. He is president of the board of directors of the New-Land Foundation and chairman of the board of MB Financial Corporation. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University in engineering, specializing in energy planning.
Noosheen Hashemi
President and Co-founder, The HAND Foundation
Noosheen Hashemi
President and Co-founder, The HAND Foundation
Mountain View, CA
Noosheen Hashemi is a philanthropist with a passion for entrepreneurship and economic development. Since 2003, she has led The HAND Foundation’s efforts to prevent child sexual abuse, strengthen the global middle class and advance the philanthropic sector. From 2006 to 2011, Ms. Hashemi co-founded and chaired PARSA Community Foundation, the first Iranian-American community foundation that made grants to Iranian and American nonprofits based in the U.S., Europe and Turkey. She was founding partner of the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance (IdEA), a non-partisan organization that promotes and supports diaspora-centered initiatives in countries and regions of diaspora origin.
Since 1997 Ms. Hashemi has been an independent investor and advisor in the software industry. In 1996, she joined Quote.com, a profitable personal finance pioneer, as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Prior to that, Ms. Hashemi held various executive management positions at Oracle Corporation between 1985 and 1995, where she took active part in software’s meteoric rise as an industry. She was appointed Director of Finance and Administration in 1988 and named Vice President in 1990. In 1991, she won Oracle’s “Against All Odds Award” for her role in the company’s financial turnaround. In 1993, she led expansion of Oracle services as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Oracle’s Worldwide Education.
Ms. Hashemi is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the CEDAW Human Rights Award for Philanthropy, and the Girl Scouts Forever Green Leadership Award. She has served as a board member of the New America Foundation from 2005-2012, and as an advisory member to The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in 2012. She is presently a trustee of the India Community Center. She holds a B.S. in Economics from San Jose State University and an M.S. in Management from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where she became a Sloan Fellow.
David Holloway
Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, Stanford University
David Holloway
Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, Stanford University
Stanford, CA
David Holloway is the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, a professor of political science, and an FSI senior fellow. He was co-director of CISAC from 1991 to 1997, and director of FSI from 1998 to 2003. His research focuses on the international history of nuclear weapons, on science and technology in the Soviet Union, and on the relationship between international history and international relations theory. His book Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956 (Yale University Press, 1994) was chosen by the New York Times Book Review as one of the 11 best books of 1994, and it won the Vucinich and Shulman prizes of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. Holloway also wrote The Soviet Union and the Arms Race (1983) and co-authored The Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative: Technical, Political and Arms Control Assessment (1984). He has contributed to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Foreign Affairs, and other scholarly journals. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he received his undergraduate degree in modern languages and literature, and his PhD in social and political sciences, both from Cambridge University.
Frank N. Von Hippel
Co-director, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University
Frank N. Von Hippel
Co-director, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
Dr. Frank von Hippel is co-director of Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, and former assistant director for national security in the White House Office of Science and Technology under President Clinton. His areas of policy research include nuclear arms control and nonproliferation and energy. Dr. von Hippel has written extensively on the technical basis for nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament initiatives, the future of nuclear energy, and improved automobile fuel economy. He won a 1993 MacArthur fellowship in recognition of his outstanding contributions to his fields of research.
Steve Kirsch
Chairman, Steve and Michele Kirsch Foundation
Steve Kirsch
Chairman, Steve and Michele Kirsch Foundation
Mountain View, CA
Recognized as a philanthropic leader in Silicon Valley and beyond, Steve Kirsch is founder and chairman of Propel Software, and CEO of Abaca, both Silicon Valley start-ups. He is perhaps best known as the founder and chairman of Infoseek Corporation, an Internet navigation service that was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in November 1999. He has been involved with the Internet since 1972 when he worked with the “Father of the Internet” Vint Cerf while attending high school. He has BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. He and his wife Michele founded the Kirsch Foundation, which has pioneered creative initiatives on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.
Lawrence J. Korb
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Lawrence J. Korb
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Washington, D.C.
Lawrence J. Korb is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Defense Information. Dr. Korb served as assistant secretary of defense (manpower, reserve affairs, installations, and logistics) from 1981 through 1985 and was awarded the Department of Defense’s medal for Distinguished Public Service. Mr. Korb served on active duty for four years as Naval Flight Officer, and retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of captain. He was director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and from July 1998 to October 2002 was council vice president, director of studies, and holder of the Maurice Greenberg Chair.
Jeff Skoll
Chairman, Skoll Foundation and Participant Media
Jeff Skoll
Chairman, Skoll Foundation and Participant Media
San Francisco, CA
From his start as founding President of eBay, Jeff Skoll has had a track record of launching businesses that result in positive social change. In 1999, he created the Skoll Foundation, which takes an entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy by investing in and connecting the world’s most promising social entrepreneurs to effect lasting, positive social change worldwide. He founded Participant Productions, now Participant Media, in 2004. Skoll serves as chairman of both Participant Media and the Skoll Foundation. He has also launched the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, a new organization that will identify and support innovative high-impact initiatives to combat nuclear proliferation, climate change, water scarcity, pandemics and Middle East conflict. Skoll became a Ploughshares advisor in 2009.