Ambassador Walter L. Cutler
Walter L. Cutler is President of Meridian International Center. He was previously a career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. He served twice as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and as Ambassador to Tunisia and Zaire. Other postings included Cameroon, Algeria, Iran, Korea, and Vietnam. In addition, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations and staff assistant to the Secretary of State. In 1993 Ambassador Cutler was awarded the Director General's Cup by the U.S. Department of State for "the successful extension of a distinguished diplomatic career to significant contributions to American foreign policy on a broad public scale."
A graduate of Wesleyan University, Ambassador Cutler holds an M.A. from The Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and The Middle East Institute; and a Director of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the American Committees on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, and the American Iranian Council.
In 1994 Ambassador Cutler was a special emissary of the United Nations Secretary General, conferring with government leaders around the world on peacekeeping issues. He has also served as research professor of diplomacy at Georgetown University. He speaks widely on the Middle East and other international issues, and is an occasional commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, and other networks.
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Richard Florida
Richard Florida is the author of the 2002 best-seller The Rise of the Creative Class, which received The Washington Monthly's Political Book Award for that year and was later named by Harvard Business Review as one of the top breakthrough ideas of 2004. The New York Times called it "an important book for those who feel passionately about the future of the urban center." Cities and regions across the United States and the world have embarked on new creativity strategies based on Florida's ideas. His new book, The Flight of the Creative Class, which examines the global competition for creative talent, was published by HarperBusiness in March 2005.
Florida is currently the Hirst Professor in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously, he was the Heinz Professor of Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University, and has been a visiting professor at MIT and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is the founder and principal of two companies: the Creativity Group, an innovative communications and strategies team; and Catalytix, a strategy-consulting firm. Florida earned his Bachelor's degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He lives in Washington, DC.
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Ambassador Richard K. Fox
Ambassador Richard Fox has been a member of the Advisory Council of NCIV since 1998. Ambassador Fox is a former career Foreign Service officer. He held various positions for the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Personnel and the Deputy Under Secretary for Management. He served as Executive Director and then as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In 1977, he was nominated by President Carter as Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. Upon completion of his assignment in 1980, he returned to the Department of State to serve as Senior Deputy Inspector General of the Foreign Service. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1984 and assumed the position of Senior Vice President of Meridian International Center where he remained until his retirement in December 1997. Ambassador Fox has served on the board of various national organizations. He is the former trustee of the University of the District of Columbia and a past president of the Board of Directors of the Wheatridge Foundation in Chicago. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy in 1994. He was nominated by President Clinton in 1995 to serve on the Presidential Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, a two-year appointment. Ambassador Fox has a BA from Indiana University. He is from Cincinnati, Ohio.
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The Honorable Harriet Mayor Fulbright
The Honorable Harriet Mayor Fulbright has been a member of the Advisory Council of the National Council for International Visitors since 1998. Ms. Fulbright currently travels the world as a key spokesperson for the Fulbright program (begun by her late husband Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946). From 1997 to the summer of 2000, she served as Executive Director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities whose mission is to encourage partnerships between the public and private sectors in order to enhance cultural life in America. She has spent the majority of her adult life in the fields of education and the arts. Her experience as a teacher ranges from Ewha Women's University in Seoul, Korea, where she taught composition and creative writing to Moscow, Russia, where she taught non-English speaking first graders to speak and read English. In the U.S., she taught art at several institutions, including the Maret School and American University. Ms. Fulbright has a BA from Radcliffe College and a MFA from George Washington University. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Law from the University of Scranton and an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Long Island University.
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Thomas W. Gittins
Thomas W. Gittins is President of Gittins & Associates, Inc. a consulting services firm specializing in international programs and projects, special project activities, meetings planning and management, and organization and institution representation. Clients include colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, international organization, and overseas institutions and corporations.
As a graduate of Cornell University, Tom joined the administration as assistant director of alumni relations. He then moved on to a career as an insurance broker in Delaware, from which he took a leave of absence to become the associate director and director of the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. Following that, he left the insurance business and returned to Washington, DC where he served as chief of operations for the Latin America bureau of Peace Corps.
Tom left Peace Corps to become Executive Vice President and CEO of Sister Cities International, a private, nonprofit national association of U.S. cities and citizen volunteer committees that have "sister-city" affiliations with cities overseas for the purpose of international professional, educational, cultural, technical, municipal, and business exchange. Under his leadership the program grew to include over 2,000 city linkages throughout the world between U.S. cities and cities in 100 other countries. During his administration, he led the growth and development of the U.S. Sister Cities program to the point where it is one of the most highly respected and effective private, community based, citizen exchange mechanisms anywhere, with a proven track record for innovation and achievement.
He was a founding board member of the International Exchange Association, a consortium of citizen exchange organizations in the U.S.; of the International Leadership Institute for International Volunteer Leader Development; of Fondo Quisqueya, a foundation providing education and training opportunities to needy candidates in the Dominican Republic; and, of Institute 21, a training and education organization focusing on assistance to emerging democracies. He has been a member of advisory committees to President Reagan and President Carter and has server as a public member of the Foreign Service Selection Board.
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Ambassador John Reinhardt
Ambassador John Reinhardt has been a member of the Advisory Council of the National Council for International Visitors since 1998. He held various positions in the Foreign Service. Ambassador Reinhardt served as a Cultural Officer in the Philippines, Japan and Iran and was USIA Assistant Director for Africa, Far East from 1966 to 1971. He served as Ambassador to Nigeria from 1971 to 1975. Upon his completion of his service, he became Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and eventually Director of USIA from 1977 to 1981. He was Assistant Secretary for Arts and Sciences and Director of International Activities at the Smithsonian Institution. Ambassador Reinhardt has extensive teaching experience in various colleges and universities including Fayetteville State College, Virginia State College and the University of Vermont. Since retirement from the Foreign Service, he has been a board member for The American Academy of Diplomacy, The Georgetown University Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Population Council of America and the Middle East Institute. He holds a Bachelors Degree from Knoxville College, a MS and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He is from Glade Spring, Virginia.
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Honorable John Richardson
The Honorable John Richardson has been a member of the Advisory Council of the National Council for International Visitors since 1998. Currently, he is a board member of the International Rescue Committee, American Forum for Global Education in New York, Council for a Community of Democracies in Washington, the Social Science Foundation at the University of Denver and World Learning in Brattleboro, Vermont. Hon. Richardson has been a World War II paratrooper, Wall Street lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, an Investment Banker at Paine Webber and CEO of Radio Free Europe. From July 1969 to March 1977, Mr. Richardson served as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. He was the Chief Executive Officer for Youth for Understanding, an organization dedicated to high school students home stay exchanges. He has been a founding board member and Chair of the National Endowment for Democracy and board member of many other educational, charitable and humanitarian organizations. Mr. Richardson attended Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He is from Boston, Massachusetts.
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Jerold J. Samet
Jerry Samet is one of the most energetic philanthropists in the Washington, DC area. Throughout his life, he has been interested in helping youth learn to become good citizens in their communities and in the world. Jerry has been very involved with Freemasonry and the Order of DeMolay, the youth group associated with the Masons that helps train young men to appreciate their families, communities, religion, and country. Jerry served as Grand Master of the International Supreme Council of the Order of DeMolay in 1992 and, in that same year, he held the highest office in Freemasonry in each jurisdiction, Grand Master, and is a 33rd degree member of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. He was elected Honorary Citizen of the City of Takoma Park, Maryland, in 1973 and has been recognized since by many organizations for his community involvement. In July of 1990, he was given the Key to the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas, and made an Arkansas Traveler by Governor Bill Clinton at the same ceremony. The State of Rhode Island awarded him the Grand Council Youth Award for outstanding service on behalf of youth. He is a member of the Bankers Club of Washington and the Washington Metropolitan Board of Trade. On October 13, 1992, as the Grand Master of Masons of the District of Columbia, in front of thousands and carried to more than 50 million via television, Jerry led the reenactment of the laying of the Cornerstone of the White House at its 200th Anniversary.
Until 2001, Jerry was the owner and president of M. Stein & Company, the oldest formalwear establishment in the Washington, DC area. He serves as founding Chairman of the Board of the Alberts H. and Constance Saunders Foundation, as the founding Chairman of the Board of the Bernard E. Shultz Foundation, as President of the Margaret M. and Jerold J. Samet Foundation, a Board Member of the Eagle Scout Foundation, and as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Youth Leaders International, an organization that promotes world peace by bringing high school students from many countries together to learn leadership skills, as well as learn that everyone throughout the world has similar needs and desires.
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Richard Stanley
Richard Stanley has been a member of the Advisory Council of the National Council for International Visitors since 2001. Mr. Stanley is a professional engineer, businessman, and world citizen. He is Chair of The Stanley Group of companies, which provide engineering, environmental, and constructive services, worldwide. He is Chair and President of The Stanley Foundation, a private foundation conducting policy and educational programs that foster a secure peace with freedom and justice. He is Vice Chair of the Board of HON Industries, Inc., a Fortune 1000 manufacturer and marketer of office furniture and hearth products, and a Director of Dover Resources, Inc. Mr. Stanley is a registered professional engineer. He has authored numerous articles and papers published in professional and technical journals and presented at professional and technical meetings. Mr. Stanley has been awarded the Anson Marston Medal, the Harry S. Truman Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of Community Colleges and the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Iowa Alumni Association. Mr. Stanley is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the Midwest. He is active in varied church, community and civic activities. He received a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and a Master of Science in Sanitary Engineering from the University of Iowa in 1963. He is from Muscatine, Iowa.
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NCIV Southern Regional Meeting - August 6-8, 2008 - 
