East-West Center: Fifty Years, Fifty Stories · Ratu Sir Kamisese K.T.Mara ... Kitty Pilgrim | 48 ... Women and men of high promise,East-West Center alumni have gone on to become

Fifty Years, Fifty StoriesEast-West Center

Index of Alumni ProfilesCover photos are in alphabetical order, left to right,row by row, beginning at the top.Below, page number of profile follows each name.

Nereus Acosta | 18

Amy Agbayani | 46

Senen Bacani | 4

Endy Bayuni | 13

Carl Becker | 34

Elizabeth “Betty” Bullard | 42

Amanda Ellis | 19

Arjumand Faisel | 54

Brenda Lei Foster | 36

Muhammad Jailani | 53

Kathleen Hall Jamieson | 25

Angela Kay Kepler | 52

Soon-Kwon Kim | 12

Riley Lee | 40

Alapaki Luke | 32

Ashok Malhotra | 10

Ratu Sir Kamisese K.T. Mara | 28

Khunying Supatra Masdit | 33

Tum May | 36

S.R. Nathan | 45

Santiago Obien | 38

Muse Opiang | 31

Rajendra K. Pachauri | 17

Mau Piailug | 44

Kitty Pilgrim | 48

Hao Ping | 22

Khaleda Rashid | 50

Nasti Reksodiputro | 23

Puongpun Sananikone | 20

Thanh-Lo Sananikone | 20

Didin Sastrapradja | 56

Sachio Semmoto | 16

Shankar P. Sharma | 55

Manmohan Singh | 6

Pamela Slutz | 8

Ann Dunham Soetoro | 15

Sombath Somphone | 14

Ch!k! Takayama | 49

Tin Myaing Thein | 35

Ricardo Trimillos | 30

Jose Turquel | 26

Margaret Valadian | 11

Rinchen Wangyel | 43

Albert Wendt | 27

Carl Wolz | 51

Sung Chul Yang | 39

Victor Yano | 24

Muhammad Yunus | 5

Arfa Zehra | 41

Zhao Zhenge | 47

AcknowledgmentsA special thank you to the more than

55,000 East-West Center alumni who

share a common vision of a peaceful,

prosperous and just Asia Pacific

community. This book represents a

snapshot of the thousands of talented

and committed individuals who have

participated in East-West Center

programs. We'd also like to thank the

many people who contributed to this

book. Your advice, suggestions and

wise counsel are greatly appreciated.

East-West Center | Fifty Years, Fifty Stories

Introduction | 2

Senen Bacani | 4Sowing the Seeds ofPeace and Development

Muhammad Yunus | 5Nobel Laureate andBanker to the Poor

Manmohan Singh | 6Navigating India’sPath to Globalization

Pamela Slutz | 8An Ambassador’s Lifeat Full Gallop

Ashok Malhotra | 10Educating thePoorest Childrenin India’s Remote Villages

Margaret Valadian | 11Advancing Civil Rights forAustralian Aborigines

Soon-Kwon Kim | 12Fighting Faminewith ‘Miracle Corn’

Endy Bayuni | 13Editorial Voicefor Press Freedom

Hao Ping | 22In China and Abroad,Bridging East and West

Nasti Reksodiputro | 23Spreading the Joy ofReading in Indonesia

Victor Yano | 24RevolutionizingHealth Care in the Pacific

KathleenHall Jamieson | 25Making Sense of theMedia and Politics

Jose Turquel | 26Nation-Buildingin Timor-Leste

Albert Wendt | 27Master Storytellerof the Pacific

Ratu SirKamisese K.T. Mara | 28South Pacific Statesman(1920–2004)

Ricardo Trimillos | 30East-West Music Man

Muse Opiang | 31‘Saving the Wildlife’ inPapua New Guinea

Riley Lee | 40The ShakuhachiGoes Universal

Arfa Zehra | 41A Voice for Women andEquality in Pakistan

Elizabeth“Betty” Bullard | 42Born to Teach(1930–2008)

Rinchen Wangyel | 43Opening a Window to‘The Sacred Artsof Bhutan’

Mau Piailug | 44The NavigatorWho Launched aRenaissance in the Pacific

S.R. Nathan | 45President of Singapore

Amy Agbayani | 46Advocate forSocial Justice

Zhao Zhenge | 47Applying LeadershipSkills, Valuing Diversity

Sombath Somphone | 14Preparing a Generationof Leaders in Laos

Ann DunhamSoetoro | 15Trailblazer for Microcreditin Southeast Asia(1942–1995)

Sachio Semmoto | 16Expanding Telecom,First in Japan,Now Globally

Rajendra K. Pachauri | 17Leader in Climate ChangeAwareness

Nereus Acosta | 18Thinking Globally,Acting Locally toFight Poverty

Amanda Ellis | 19Striving toEmpower Women inDeveloping Countries

Puongpun and Thanh-LoSananikone | 20The Power of Two

Alapaki Luke | 32Awakening anAppreciation for the ‘!ina

KhunyingSupatra Masdit | 33Championing Women’sIssues in Thailand

Carl Becker | 34Pioneering Work onIssues of Life and Death

Tin Myaing Thein | 35Helping ImmigrantsGet a Fresh Start

Brenda Lei Foster | 36Promoting U.S.-ChinaBusiness Ties

Tum May | 36Boosting Public Healthand Opportunitiesin Cambodia

Santiago Obien | 38‘Guiding Father’ ofPhilippines Rice Industry

Sung Chul Yang | 39An Ambassador forReconciliation andPeaceful Reunification

Kitty Pilgrim | 48Informing Viewers on aWorld of Economic Trends

Ch!k! Takayama | 49StrengtheningHawai‘i-Okinawa Ties

Khaleda Rashid | 50A Blueprint forLivable Housing

Carl Wolz | 51Creating a Global DanceCommunity (1932–2002)

Angela Kay Kepler | 52Conservationist and‘Old-Fashioned Naturalist’

Muhammad Jailani | 53Ensuring Child Rights inSoutheast Asia

Arjumand Faisel | 54Committed to a PakistanYou Don’t See on CNN

Shankar P. Sharma | 55Representing Nepal inWashington

Didin Sastrapradja | 56Valued Leader in Scienceand Public Service

Celebrating 50 Years ofCollaboration ! Expertise ! Leadership

Women and men of high promise, East-West Center alumni have gone on to become presidents

and prime ministers, leading educators and business executives, senior journalists and social

advocates. In nations that span the globe, alumni continue to further the mission of the Center.

Many are trailblazers influencing change at the grassroots, local, national, regional and

international levels. They have earned recognition for pioneering solutions to long-standing

problems. Others are emerging leaders dedicated to forging better futures for their communities.

In the work they do, alumni demonstrate that leadership is tied to service — changing the

world in ways that serve others. They apply their expertise to areas of public health, environment,

education, agriculture, commerce, human rights, diplomacy, media and technology, science and

the arts. They embrace collaboration, an appreciation many alumni trace to their days at the

East-West Center.

The 50 alumni in this publication, prepared to commemorate the East-West Center’s 50th

anniversary, are representative of a vast network that stretches beyond the Asia Pacific region

and their countries of origin. The East-West Center experience unites more than 55,000 students,

scholars and professionals from more than 50 nations. For many, the Center provided a defining

chapter in their lives, influencing their perspectives and aspirations, and initiating lifelong

personal and professional associations.

As you read of these 50 individuals, you’ll see how East-West Center alumni are contributing

to global understanding, building an Asia Pacific community and shaping the future in a region

undergoing dramatic transformation.

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As Secretary of Agriculture toPresident Corazon Aquino,Senen Bacani visited everyprovince in the Philippines.

Wherever he traveled, he witnessed the poor inthe countryside struggling to raise enough to feedtheir families.

Bacani’s father was a doctor and many of hispatients would present farm produce as thanks forthe medical care they received. That memory andseeing first hand the agricultural needs of the ruralpoor compelled Bacani to work for shifts in policyand programs — and later when he re-entered theworld of agribusiness, to provide employment andmanagement opportunities to alleviate poverty inrural areas in the Philippines.

Most notably, on Mindanao, he launched aventure that brought not only jobs but peacewhere there had been years of unemployment,crime and inter-ethnic conflict.

After receiving an M.B.A. from theUniversity of Hawai‘i in 1968, the EWCgrantee spent a successful 20-year careerwith Dole Food Company, including ascountry manager of Dole in CostaRica and then the Philippines.

In 1993, after serving inAquino’s administration, Bacanistarted his first entrepreneurialventure, which managedcorporate banana farms.It was step one of abusiness plan that linkeddevelopment with peace.

Senen BacaniSowing the Seeds of Peace and Development

Senen BacaniPhilippines1966, M.A.

While with Dole, Bacani took note of thepotential of Mindanao: fertile land, the rightclimate and an available workforce. He approachedChiquita Unifruitti International to invest in bananafarms in a predominantly Muslim area on Mindanao.

In 1996, La Frutera, Inc., the first large-scalebanana plantation in the Autonomous Regionof Muslim Mindanao, was formed. Today theplantation is one of the top 10 banana producersin the country, exporting Cavendish bananas toJapan, Korea, China and the Middle East. Perhapsmore significant, with Bacani as chairman andpresident, La Frutera’s success has transformed theonce war-torn area. It employs some 1,745 people— 90 percent Muslim and 10 percent Christian.Among the staff are former rebels of the MoroNational Liberal Front and the Moro IslamicLiberation Front.

Bacani’s hope is that La Frutera’s success willinspire other companies to see how providingjobs, especially in rural areas, is a sustainable way

to alleviate poverty — and strife. At onepoint when conflict intensified between

the government and the rebels, LaFrutera workers rejected efforts torejoin rebel forces. That affirmedBacani’s belief that “peace anddevelopment go together.”

“We cannot keep onwaiting for peace to comefirst,” he says. “The reasonthere is no peace is that thereis no development.” !

“My East-West Center experience primed meto be more sensitive to cultural differences indealing with people, and at the same time mademe more cognizant of the inter-relatedness ofdifferent events in the world and their impacton countries and their people.”


Senen Bacani (R) examines bananas that helped transform thelivelihood of thousands of Filipinos.


During a field trip to avillage, MuhammadYunus and students inhis economics class at

Bangladesh’s Chittagong University encountereda woman who made simple bamboo furniture.The villager explained that she bought bambooto weave into stools by borrowing money at a highinterest rate from moneylenders. After repaying theloan, there was little profit left to feed her family.

Yunus discerned that if people could borrowat more advantageous rates, they would have abetter chance of lifting themselves out of poverty.A very small loan could make a multitude ofdifference for families in the poorest villages

Muhammad YunusNobel Laureate and Banker to the Poor

Muhammad YunusBangladesh1973, Workshop

across Bangladesh. The visionary economistreasoned that providing even the slightesteconomic cushion would encourage initiative —and be a first step toward achieving his dream of“creating a world without poverty.”

But traditional banks considered it foolhardyto make loans they deemed had little chance ofrepayment. So the professor made his first loan,$27 US, from his own pocket, to village womenwho were bamboo furniture makers.

That loan in 1974, during a famine inBangladesh, was the beginning of Grameen Bank,which means “village bank.” Formed in 1983 byYunus, the bank provides “micro-loans” ormicrocredit to the poor — primarily women —

to launch their cottage industries, encouragevillage-level enterprise, and put them on the pathto sustainable futures.

It was the beginning of Yunus’ goal of“putting homelessness and destitution in amuseum so that one day our children will visit itand ask how we could have allowed such a terriblething to go on for so long.”

The third of 14 children, he was guided byhis father to pursue higher education. Yunusreceived his B.A. and master’s degree from DhakaUniversity, then a Ph.D. in economics fromVanderbilt University through a FulbrightScholarship. In 1973, he came to the East-WestCenter to participate in a leadership seminar.

The economist credits his mother withinstilling a desire to aid the less fortunate.As a child he noticed she never turned away thedestitute who knocked on their door for help.Influenced by this compassion, Yunus has forgeda micro-credit movement. Today you can findreplicas of the Grameen Bank model in more than100 countries spanning every continent.

In Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank has morethan 1,000 branches, serves more than 2 millionborrowers in 37,000 villages and provides morethan $2.5 billion in micro-loans. Women comprise94 percent of the borrowers, and nearly 100percent of the loans are repaid.

In 2006, Muhammad Yunus was awarded theNobel Peace Prize for founding the GrameenBank “fueled by the belief that microcredit is afundamental human right” and the impact theinnovative banking program has had on allayingglobal poverty. !

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When Manmohan Singhwas tapped as FinanceMinister in 1991, India’seconomy was sliding

toward bankruptcy. Singh swiftly institutedreforms that liberalized the economy and placedthe South Asian nation on the path to globalization.Under his stewardship, the economy revived andgrew at an annual rate of 7 percent.

However, quiet, brilliant economists don’tusually make successful politicians. So no oneexpected Singh to emerge as India’s primeminister in the nation’s 2004 elections, let alonebe re-elected overwhelmingly to a second term.But that’s exactly what happened in May 2009,when more than 400 million voters in the world’slargest democracy gave Singh’s Congress Party itsbiggest election victory in years.

Singh, who had already made history as thefirst Sikh to hold the nation’s top post, becameonly the second prime minister — JawaharlalNehru was the first — to win another five-yearterm.

Upon Singh’s re-election, an Indian politicalanalyst explained on National Public Radio, “TheIndian electorate preferred him because he waslow-key, he seemed different. He was an educatedman who was known for his scholarship, and itkept his voice and rhetoric at a low level.”

Manmohan SinghNavigating India’s Path to Globalization

Manmohan SinghIndia1964, Trade

Born in Gah (now part of Pakistan), Singh’sfamily moved to Amritsar in 1947, displaced by thepartition at the arrival of India’s independence.Life was extremely difficult. At times, thefamily couldn’t afford food or electricity.Young Manmohan walked to school barefoot;he studied under a street lamp.

Hungry to learn, he applied himself to hisstudies, graduating from Punjab University, thenattending Cambridge and Oxford universities onscholarships, where he distinguished himself ineconomics. After returning to India to teach at hisalma mater, he came to the East-West Center for aprogram on international trade. Soon after that hejoined the Delhi School of Economics, during itsgolden era — and began his ascent as an economicsreformer.

In 2004, when Congress Party PresidentSonia Gandhi nominated Singh to be primeminister, observers considered it a gamble thatthe low-profile economist could win. But he did,and his election eased tensions between theCongress Party and India’s Sikhs.

In a notoriously divisive political climate,he steadied India’s economy — which grew morethan 8 percent when Western economies took anose dive. And in 2009, Singh earned a clear-cutmandate from Indian voters to continue botheconomic and much-needed social reforms. !

“I was at the East-West

Center in 1964. I enjoyed

my time there very much

and believe that its

mission now is even more

important than before.”

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“I knew I wanted a vocation that involved living and working abroad among different societies and cultures,particularly in Asia. The East-West Center experience cemented that commitment and, together with theUniversity of Hawai‘i, gave me the tools (language, area studies, contacts) to achieve my goals.”


Ambassador Pamela Slutz and her husband with the Dalai Lama.


Pamela Slutz has ridden acrossthe steppes of Mongolia onhorseback, under blue skies andvast horizon that reminded her

of the American West. That was when she wasU.S. ambassador to Mongolia (2003-06) and hadthe privilege of hosting the first visit to Mongoliaby a sitting U.S. president and first lady.

During her tour in Kenya (2006-09) asdeputy chief of mission, she climbed to thesummit of Mount Kenya and tracked wildebeestacross the Serengeti, enjoying vistas that againreminded her of the American West.

In December 2009 she took over as U.S.ambassador to Burundi, her second post as head ofembassy. Burundi is a continent away from Asia,where Slutz has spent a majority of her career —Jakarta (twice), Shanghai and the AmericanInstitute in Taiwan,in addition toMongolia.However, her firstForeign Servicepost was inKinshasa — thenZaire, now theDemocraticRepublic of theCongo.

Each assign-ment has had itsrewards. InMongolia, she wasinstrumental in

Pamela SlutzAn Ambassador’s Life at Full Gallop

Pamela SlutzUnited States1970, M.A.

channeling assistance to the first-ever shelter forabused women in Ulaanbaatar. She worked toempower women, particularly in the politicalarena, encouraging the passage of legislationmandating that 30 percent of the seats in thenation’s parliament go to women. Kenyapresented an entirely different set of challenges:threats to Americans from terrorists in Somali,violent crime and civil unrest.

Burundi is proving to be no exception.Slutz has observed elections in Kenya, Mongolia,Taiwan and Indonesia — not all of which wentsmoothly. In mid-2010 Burundi is to hold its firstdemocratic elections since 1993. She and herembassy team are well positioned to support andmonitor the elections.

It was her interest in Asia that brought Slutzto the East-West Center, where she specialized inIndonesian studies. “My heart has always been inAsia,” she says of her passion for the region, whichshe traces to her childhood as a “diplobrat.” Shespent the formative years of her childhood inThailand, where her father was a Foreign Serviceofficer, then in college visited her parents postedin Indonesia. “I just fell in love with the people,the cultures, the islands,” she says of the largest ofSoutheast Asian nations.

Before she retires to the Texas Hill Country,where she and husband (retired Foreign ServiceOfficer) Ronald Deutch are building a home, shehopes for one more State Department posting inAsia to complete a career she describes as “livingher dream.” !

Ask Ashok Malhotra abouthis arrival at the East-WestCenter in 1963 and thedecades melt away:

Once again he is a young grantee from the BirlaArts/Science/Engineering Colleges at Pilani,Rajasthan.

It was the beginning of a five-decade adventurethat has enabled Malhotra to effect change inamazing ways across borders, continents andoceans. His proudest accomplishment is the non-profit Ninash Foundation, established in memoryof his late wife, Nina, whom he met at the EWC.

Since it was founded in 1996, the Foundationand students from the SUNY College at Oneontacampus have assisted in building four Indo-International Schools in impoverished villagesin Rajasthan and Gujarat, India. More than 900underprivileged children — mostly female and thesocially outcast — have received a free educationand the school employs 20 teachers and staff whootherwise would be jobless. The Foundation’smission is to achieve 100 percent literacy in thevillages where these schools are located andthen adopt this model for the rest of India.

After completing his EWC studies, Malhotrajoined SUNY College at Oneonta, wherehe was asked to start a philosophy department.Influenced by his EWC experience, he createda program offering Eastern and Westernphilosophies, and introduced Asian philosophyand religion components into the undergraduatecurriculum.

Ashok MalhotraEducating the Poorest Childrenin India’s Remote Villages


Ashok MalhotraIndia1963, Ph.D.

In 1979, he started the SUNY Oneonta StudyAbroad Program in India. More than 200students, faculty and community members haveparticipated in the program. He’s been an activemember of the SUNY Press Editorial Board,encouraging the publication of books on Asian

Studies. The SUNYPress is one of thelargest publishers ofbooks on Asian Studiesin the United States.

As a memberof the NationalEndowment for theHumanities board, headvocated funding forprojects such as theEWC Asian StudiesDevelopment Program.He’s translated theBhagavad Gita, Yoga

Sutras and Tao Te Ching into language easilyunderstood by undergraduate students and ageneral audience.

In 2006, the ’60s alumnus established theAshok Kumar Malhotra Seva (CompassionateService Award) to reward and encourage publicservice. Each year a scholarship is given to oneor more international students with outstandingacademic achievements and a record and intentionof being involved in continuing communityservice in the U.S. and/or the Asia Pacificregion. !

“The EWC experiencegot me out of my boxand spread the entireworld in front of me.I felt that I did notbelong to any onecountry and at thesame time, I belongedto the entire world andto the entire humanrace.”

When Margaret Valadianstarted school, Aboriginesweren’t providedopportunities to pursue

higher education in Australia, let alone expectedto excel academically. But Valadian changed that.She stood out from her earliest school days inBrisbane, aspiring to a career in education whenAborigines could not obtain scholarships forteacher training.

A casual comment from an elementary schoolteacher that she was good in math, along with hermother’s encouragement, fortified Margaret’sdetermination to further her education. In 1966,she received a bachelor of social studies in socialwork from the University of Queensland, becomingthe first Aboriginal woman university graduate.

But it was her experiences outside Australia— including at the East-West Center, where shereceived a master’s in education; and at the StateUniversity of New York, a master of social workdegree — that put her on a path to advance thedevelopment and education of Aboriginal people.

As she traveled across the U.S. in the ’60s,she observed the fervor of the civil rights andcommunity organizing movements. She visited avoter registration campaign in the South, minoritywelfare programs in New York, Chicago and theSouthwest. She worked summers at a NativeAmerican school, attended the Saul AlinskyInstitute for Community Development, theHighlander Folk School in Alabama. Earlier shehad spent a summer in Papua New Guinea, wherestudents trained at a specially designed college tolearn administrative skills.

“It was not until I became involved in otherindigenous communities,” she says, “that I saw theneed to focus on change as a more appropriatepolicy and program direction.”

These experiences provided a framework forthe customized, non-formal education programsof the Aboriginal Training and Cultural Instituteshe founded in Sydney in 1978. Her hope was tocreate “a vehicle for bringing change to the livesand aspirations of disadvantaged Aborigines.”Students told her the program “made it easy forthem to understand the material they were learning.”

The institute was soon recognized as thenational education institution that providedparticipants a sense of self-confidence, purposeand direction, and the foundation to pursue theirinterests. Under Valadian’s guidance, the organi-zation pioneered development education andmanagement training so that Aboriginals couldrun community organizations as councilors, youthworkers, teaching assistants and health workers.

Valadian went on to work with the Universityof Wollongong Aboriginal Education Center andto establish the Indigenous Social DevelopmentInstitute at the turn of the millennium until herrecent retirement. !

Margaret ValadianAdvancing Civil Rights for Australian Aborigines

Margaret ValadianAustralia1967, M.A.


“EWC staff and students worked togetherto undertake a wide range of initiatives.The success of these activities confirmedthe importance of having a strong belief inwhat you want to do, having confidence inhow you approach your goals and the valueof collaborative teamwork.”

Soon-Kwon Kim takes pridein introducing himself as“Dr. Corn.” For more than30 years the South Korean

agricultural scientist has been fighting poverty andfamine through the development of high-yield,disease-resistant corn hybrids first in Asia, thenAfrica. His remarkable success, bucking conventionalwisdom that corn that thrived in developedcountries wouldn’t grow in the developingcountries of the third world, earned him thenickname he wears as a badge of accomplishment.

Through the International Corn Foundation,he’s continued a dream that began at KyungpookNational University in the early 1970s, became areality at the University of Hawai‘i through an

EWC scholarship and has matured over thedecades as he worked first in South

Korea, then throughout Africa andnow in northeastern China

and North Korea.

Soon-Kwon KimFighting Famine with ‘Miracle Corn’


Soon-Kwon KimSouth Korea1971, Ph.D.

Born in 1945 in Ulsan, the son of a poor farmerin a rural area, Kim “had a lot of experience withhunger.” He attended an agricultural high school,then Kyungpook National University and KoreaUniversity on scholarships. That — along with hisEWC scholarship and the Center’s mission —instilled in him “a strong responsibility first tohelp my country, next to help other countries.”

In 1971, Kim arrived at the East-West Centerwith a keen interest in reducing hunger. Hissolution: to develop miracle corn by revolutionizingcorn breeding. Field study took him through theU.S. corn belt, traveling by Greyhound bus toNebraska, Iowa, Ohio and Illinois. The corn hesaw growing in fields was “better than I dreamed,”he remembers. In Ames, Iowa, he looked out thewindow of the bus and started to cry — “The cornwas so beautiful.”

Back in Hawai‘i, aided by his mentor, Dr. JimBrewbaker, he developed corn seed resistant toinsects, parasites and diseases in South Korea.He mastered hybrid techniques to produce high-yielding crops farmers could grow without relyingon chemicals. “With this corn,” he thought, “I canchange the world.” When he completed his thesisthree months before the semester ended, heimmediately returned to Seoul without attendinggraduation ceremonies, eager to get to work.

But first he had to persuade his agriculturalinstitute, the government and farmers that theseeds he brought home would thrive in their fields.“I told them if I fail, I will go to jail for 10 years,”he says. “I had strong confidence I can do this.”

By 1978, his team had doubled the nationalcorn yield twice and tripled farmers’ net income.His success in Korea caught the attention of theInternational Institute of Agricultural Technology(IIAT). Kim accepted a job at its headquarters inNigeria, developing corn for countries in Africa tocombat hunger on the continent. Kim moved hisfamily, expecting to spend 12 months — andstayed 17 years. His research team succeeded indeveloping 100 varieties of maize resistant toAfrica’s No. 1 enemy, maize streak virus. IIAT andKim received the CGIAR King Baudouin Awardfor international agricultural research in 1986.

“Without the EWC,there will be no Dr. Kim.No corn greenrevolution in Korea.Combating hungerin Africa with maizewould be far behind.”

In the late ’90s, alarmed by reports of faminein North Korea, he decided to return to SouthKorea, intent on helping fellow Koreans. Since1998, Kim has made more than 50 trips to NorthKorea to introduce corn-breeding techniques tocooperative farms in an effort to alleviate famineand foster better relations between the north andsouth. “You know,” he says, “corn doesn’t knowKorea is divided.” !

Under the watchful eye of Endy Bayuni, The Jakarta Post plays a critical butconstructive role as Indonesia’s leading independent English-language newspaper.Bayuni is chief editor, a position he’s held since returning in 2004 from a prestigiousNieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Bayuni’s widely read columns provide clear-eyed commentary and analysis of Indonesian domesticpolitics, including Political Islam and foreign policy issues. At a presentation in Europe on the role andresponsibility of a free press, he was recognized as “an advocate of press freedom and the free flow ofinformation.”

It’s a well-earned salute that reflects the editor and his editorial team’s commitment to “pushing theenvelope through vigorous reporting.” Freedom of speech and freedom of the media in Indonesia were hardwon. For years under the rule of President Suharto, the press was held in check; it wasn’t until the end of theSuharto regime in 1998, followed by a democratic election and reforms, that the Indonesian press was ableto enjoy freedom of expression and opinion.

Bayuni is often called on to speak internationally of U.S.-Indonesia relations, issues involving Indonesiaand Muslim societies, and events in Southeast Asia. His perspective is informed by experiences overseas,including at Kingston University in Surrey,England, where he received his bachelor ofarts degree in economics in 1981; a JeffersonFellowship at the East-West Center in 1999; andthe Nieman Fellowship year. At Harvard, he tookadvantage of the opportunity to attend classesat the Kennedy School of Government.

Bayuni’s newspaper career began in 1983as a cub reporter for The Jakarta Post. He alsoworked as Indonesian correspondent for Reutersand Agence France Presse news services from1984 to 1991. At The Post, he’s held variouspositions, including production manager/nighteditor, national editor, managing editor anddeputy chief editor. Now The Post, with Bayuni atthe helm, is recognized as a vigorous watchdog ofthe people’s interests and good governance in thefourth largest country in the world. !

Endy BayuniEditorial Voice for Press Freedom

Endy BayuniIndonesia1999, Journalism


More than half thepopulation of Laos isunder 20 years of age,with few opportunities

for a better life in one of the world’s poorestnations. Yet to Sombath Somphone, those3 million young Laotians represent his country’s“best hope.”

In 1996, he founded the ParticipatoryDevelopment Training Centre (PADETC) inVientiane to train and motivate a new generationof leaders to provide education for sustainabledevelopment. Guided by Somphone and a smallstaff, teams of youth volunteers conductdevelopment work throughout the country,reaching as many as 9,000 people a week. Thesevolunteers are also learning by doing — “to think,to plan, to act, and to lead.” Somphone calls thisparticipatory learning.

As executive director, he often refers toPADETC’s many programs — which emphasizeeco-friendly technology, micro-enterprise andeducation — as “tentacles.”

Somphone returned to Laos in 1980 afterearning degrees in education and agriculture at theEast-West Center. Initially he focused on foodsecurity for rural villages, but soon came to believethe future hinged on engaging Lao youth to findappropriate solutions. He began to build a youthprogram bolstered by hundreds of enthusiasticyoung volunteers who advance programs aimed atreducing poverty.

Sombath SomphonePreparing a Generation of Leaders in Laos


Sombath SomphoneLaos1971, Population

One of its most effective programs transformsthe learning process inside and outside theclassroom. Youth volunteers assist teachers inactivity-based learning that takes grade-school kidsoutdoors. They use play, storytelling and drama tomake learning fun. University-level volunteers,called Green Ants, popularize environmentalawareness. Post-graduate trainees conduct fieldworkon drug-abuse prevention and HIV awareness.Through PADETC, these volunteers gain bothleadership skills and hands-on experience.

For his efforts “to promote sustainabledevelopment in Laos by training and motivatingits young people” to become leaders, Somphonereceived the 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award for

Community Leadership. The prestigious MagsaysayAwards, established by the Rockefeller BrothersFoundation, are often called Asia’s Nobel Prizes.The award applauded Somphone’s conviction thatthe young are more receptive to new ideas whenthey are empowered through practical experience.

“We had to try out different things over theyears, to find an entry point into what we reallywant to achieve,” he says. “So everything we didwas like little pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which wehave developed and pieced together.” Through theefforts of Lao youth and the 14-year-old trainingcenter, Somphone can see “a picture is slowlytaking shape.” !

Ann Dunham Soetorofound her life’s work inthe villages and smalltowns of Indonesia.

Fluent in Bahasa Indonesia, she conversed easilywith women in village marketplaces, got to knowthem in their homes. And in the process shebecame familiar with the multiple roles andburdens they shouldered as they struggled to raisetheir families out of poverty.

Clad in garments of batik, with fair skin andexpressive eyes, the American anthropologiststood out among the Indonesian villagers. Butin many ways Soetoro was more comfortablein Indonesia than she was in Honolulu, whereshe’d attended the University of Hawai‘i on anEast-West Center scholarship.

Soetoro had come to the fourth mostpopulous country in the world in 1967 after hermarriage to Lolo Soetoro, an EWC grantee. Withthem was her six-year old son, Barack Obama.When Barack was nine, she returned him to Hawai‘iin the care of her parents while he completedschool. Yet despite the physical distance, Soetoroinstilled in her son — who would becomePresident of the United States — a shared concernfor social change and social justice. A journalistfriend in Indonesia calls Soetoro “a reformer whocommitted her life to the idea that was the keyslogan of her son’s 2008 presidential campaign,‘Change We Can Believe In.’”

When her marriage to Lolo Soetoro ended,she began an academic and professional journeythat took her across the Indonesian archipelago.She eventually completed a Ph.D. in anthropologyon peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia. By then,

she was recognized as a trailblazer for work she’dinitiated at the Ford Foundation in microcredit inthe Southeast Asian nation’s rural villages.

Colleagues found her “purposeful.” Theyrecall she rarely softened her opinions to pleaseothers as she pushed to improve the lives of thepoor in the developing world, particularlyIndonesia. Consistently Soetoro raised awarenessof gender equity issues and women’s roles in theircommunities, years before this became acceptedpolicy in the NGO world.

A landmark project involved the East JavaneseWomen’s Central Cooperative, then a fledglingorganization and an incubator for economic

empowerment programs for women in low-income and rural areas. The project successfullyprovided microcredit in the form of loans andassistance to village-level sustainable cottageindustries. She continued similar work with otherorganizations, including the Asia DevelopmentBank in Pakistan and the oldest bank in Indonesia.

When Ann Dunham Soetoro died in 1995 atthe age of 52, she’d already secured a legacy thather daughter described in a newspaper interview,“to not be limited by fear or narrow definitions …and to do our best to find kinship and beauty inunexpected places.” !

Ann Dunham SoetoroTrailblazer for Microcredit in Southeast Asia (1942–1995)

Ann Dunham SoetoroUnited States1973, Ph.D.


Ann Dunham Soetoro with her husband (and EWC alumnus)Lolo Soetoro, baby daughter Maya, and son Barack Obama.

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“My experience at theEast-West Center is my

greatest asset because thatwas the first time I recognized

the importance of Asia.Without my experience

and residence at theEast-West Center

in the late ’70s,I don’t think

I would appreciatethe strategic

importanceof Asia,

the U.S. andthe Pacific.”

Sachio Semmoto had a promising future with Nippon Telegraph andTelephone (NTT) when he arrived in the United States as a graduatestudent. His encounter with the West changed his life — and thetelecommunications industry in Japan.

Through a Fulbright Scholarship, Semmoto earned a Ph.D. in engineering at the Universityof Florida. Then in 1978, Semmoto came to the East-West Center as a research fellow in theCommunications Institute. His fellowship completed, Semmoto returned to Japan and soonbroke with corporate tradition when at the age of 41, he quit a comfortable job at NTT to start arival company. His move shocked colleagues. “No one stood up to compete,” Semmoto toldThe Economist in a 2008 interview. “But I perceived that if no one stood up, then Japan wouldnot change. So I stood up.”

Today that wireless rival, KDDI, is the second largest telecommunications operator in Japan.Its revenues are estimated at $35 billion. Since then the entrepreneur has gone on to launch fourmore companies. In 1999, Semmoto started eAccess, a broadband company that helped reduceprices in Japan’s expensive Internet access market. After its first year, eAccess turned a profit.

His latest corporate venture is eMobile, geared to deliver inexpensive high-speed wirelessdata for any device. Semmoto managed to keep eMobile’s costs low by once again spurningtradition. Rather than rely on domestic equipment, his company is buying from suppliers inSweden and China.

His successes have earned him a salute from The Economist as a “serial entrepreneur.”Forbes magazine called him a “Japanese telecom legend.” The former company man turnedrisk-taker credits his education in the United States — “from my involvement with Americanuniversities and my experience with the East-West Center.”

Semmoto’s academic credentials include visiting professorships at Carnegie MellonUniversity and the University of California-Berkeley, and as a visiting research fellow atStanford University. In 1996, he joined Keio University’s graduate school of business, teachingentrepreneurial management and information technology.

He is outspoken about the need for Japanese students to study abroad. “Without lookingglobally, you’re destined to become conservative, less innovative,” he believes. “It’s critical tosee outside your own country. One has to find out in the world there are different sets of values.You have to go physically and watch and feel and get the feedback from a different society whohas a different set of values. This applies to America, too.

“Being international is increasingly critical for future survival. If you want to survive,you have to see your neighbor,” he says, firmly. “That’s why the East-West Center will becomeincreasingly more important as a bridge between the United States and Asia.” !

Sachio SemmotoExpanding Telecom, First in Japan, Now Globally


Sachio SemmotoJapan1978, Communications

Long before climate changebecame a household worry,Rajendra K. Pachauri identifiedthe dangers of global warming

and related environmental issues. As directorgeneral of TERI (The Energy and ResourcesInstitute, formerly known as the Tata EnergyResearch Institute) and chairman of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,he is respected internationally as a leading globalthinker and researcher in this area.

In 2007, he was thrust into the spotlight whenthe IPCC shared the Nobel Peace Prize with U.S.Vice President Al Gore. Pachauri, as chairman ofthe international panel of scientists, shared thepodium in Oslo with Gore, and today is highlysought after as an international spokesman forclimate change awareness.

He presented an address at the welcomingceremony at the United Nations Climate ChangeConference in Copenhagen in December 2009.And he is to give a keynote address at theEast-West Center’s 50th anniversary celebrationin July 2010.

Pachauri has maintained ties to the Centersince the late ’70s, when EWC Fellow ToufiqSiddiqi approached him to collaborate on a projecton the environmental dimensions of energypolicies. A series of energy and environment-related projects with Siddiqi and EWC FellowKirk Smith brought Pachauri to the Center,including as a visiting fellow with the Center’sResource Systems Institute in 1982.

Born into a family of educators in themountains of Nainital, Pachauri, like his father,studied abroad. He received a double Ph.D. inindustrial engineering and economics from NorthCarolina State University, where he served on thefaculty.

He returned home to teach in India and by1982 had assumed the directorship of TERI inNew Delhi, growing the organization into oneof the world’s best-known research institutes.Research with global institutions, such as theWorld Bank and United Nations DevelopmentProgramme, and institutions in numerouscountries also prepared him for the role ofchairman of the IPCC. Scientists representingall continents comprise the IPCC, “to assemble,assess and compile knowledge on the greatestthreat to the planet since the dawning of theindustrial age.”

During his two terms as head of IPCC,Pachauri has brought on board once-reluctantdeveloping countries to formulate policiesaddressing climate change. Work demands havehim traveling constantly, yet the scientist managesto find an occasional free moment to composepoetry. And family and close colleagues will assureyou that he will always make time for a game ofcricket. !

Rajendra K. PachauriLeader in Climate Change Awareness

R.K. PachauriIndia1981, Fellow


“The East-West Center years were a period ofintellectual growth and personal characterformation. I learned to deeply value knowledge— both from formal sources and the largersocial milieu of vast exchanges with otherscholars from the Asia Pacific region —including friendships formed for a lifetime.”

After Nereus (Neric) Acostareceived his Ph.D. in politicalscience in 1994, the EWCDoctoral Fellow returned

to the Philippines and quickly began to makeheadlines. He became the youngest person everelected to his local provincial council. Four yearslater, he won a seat in the national Congress.

In his fight for positive social, economicand political change in the Philippines, his effortshave extended far beyond politics, earning himinvitations to speak in countries all over the worldabout his work in sustainable development andpoverty alleviation.

“The worst problem is not poverty withresources, but the poverty of the spirit, thehopelessness and the thought that we cannot makeany difference,” Acosta told local legislators andgrassroots community organizers in rallyingsupport for policies on population, reproductivehealth and human development. He’s found thesepolicies can often be a hard sell in a nation withdeeply embedded cultural and religious traditions.

Nereus AcostaThinking Globally, Acting Locally to Fight Poverty


Nereus AcostaPhilippines1989, Ph.D.

But he’s been steadfast. He launched acommunity college for poor students, especiallyfrom the disadvantaged Lumad communities,indigenous to the Bikidnon province of northernMindanao, who share his roots. He subsidizedtuition for up to 3,000 students in high school andcollege from congressional development funds.

Then there’s a microcredit project with closeto 8,000 poor rural women as beneficiaries in 130villages. It gives out loans of 2,000 to 5,000 pesos($100 U.S.) for projects such as raising chickensor cultivating vegetable gardens or running smallstores. The non-government organization, calledBINHI-BULIG, replicates Grameen Bankmicrofinancing of Bangladesh, where Acosta

trained before he entered politics. According toAcosta, this project is the largest of its kind in thenorthern Mindanao region.

Acosta advocates a world of “glocal”leadership, of “global and local understanding,global and local responses. A leader in today’sworld has to look at these ‘glocal’ realities, ‘glocal’approaches, and think and act on both fronts,” hesays. “Policies are great for a legal framework thatcan be used nationally, but how is that changingthe life of the farmer with the water buffalo inMindanao? Given this context, the dent you makeis actually in the local communities and the livesyou transform.” !

Take a look at a map of theworld’s developing countriesand chances are Amanda Ellishas played a role in economically

empowering women in an impressive number ofthose nations.

Ellis is lead specialist for the World BankGroup Gender Action Plan, a $60 million initiativethat promotes gender equality as smart economics.She spearheads an exciting new global researchprogram on Economic Opportunities for Women.On top of that, she manages the World Bank’sGlobal Private Sectors Leaders CEO Forum.

Ellis traces her interest in gender issues toa political science class she enrolled in at theUniversity of Hawai‘i as an EWC graduate student,pursuing a master’s in communications andpolitical science, and studying Japanese. Whenshe completed her studies, Ellis stepped easily intothe foreign service in her native New Zealand,serving posts in Paris, the Pacific and Asia.

In the foreign service, “I saw how importantit was from a development perspective thatwomen have access to loans in microfinance,” shesays. After roles with the International Secretariatfor the Pacific Economic Cooperation Counciland as a senior official to APEC, she washeadhunted by Australia’s WESTPAC BankingCorporation, as national manager for women inbusiness and the head of women’s markets.

There, Ellis ran a women’s business programthat introduced her to many of the country’swomen entrepreneurs and led to a book contractwith Random House. That book, “Women’sBusiness, Women’s Wealth,” became a best seller.She followed with a book about womenentrepreneurs in New Zealand, “Woman 2

Woman,” which shot into the top 10 best-seller listfor nonfiction in its first week on the shelves.

She has donated proceeds from sales of herbooks to an endowment at the East-West Centerfor the Amanda and Natalie Ellis Scholarships, atribute to her mother, Natalie, who retired in2008 after a long and distinguished teachingcareer. The scholarships will go to young womenleaders in Australia and New Zealand participatingin the EWC Asia Pacific Leadership Program.

In 2003, Ellis moved on to the World BankGroup, founding the gender program at theInternational Finance Corporation andsubsequently was named Lead Specialist forGender and Development at the World Bank

itself. In May 2007 and 2008, she gave the keynoteaddress at the APEC Women Leaders’ NetworkConferences in Australia and Peru. “It’s fascinatinghow things I was involved with at the Center in myearly career, how these connections have beenmaintained and strengthened to become a theme inmy professional life,” she says.

(In July 2010 Amanda Ellis is expected to return toNew Zealand to assume the position of Deputy Secretary– Development in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs &Trade, leading the unit that manages the government’sinternational aid and development program.) !

Amanda EllisStriving to Empower Women in Developing Countries

Amanda EllisNew Zealand1986, Ph.D.


“The Center was an amazing opportunity for someone from the bottom of the South Island ofNew Zealand to learn from 350 students from 53 different countries. I couldn’t have known atthe time, but it was the perfect training for my subsequent careers in the foreign service andnow at the World Bank — and like many Center grantees, I met my future husband at EWC!”

Amanda Ellis (third from left) withWorld Bank President Robert Zoellick.


In July 2008 PuongpunSananikone became thefirst EWC alumnus to beelected chairman of theEWC Board of Governors(and was re-elected in2009). It’s just the latest ina long list of achievementsfor Puongpun and his wife,Thanh-Lo, who met as

grantees at the Center in 1964.While their work has taken them all over the

world, the Sananikones’ hearts have remained inHawai‘i and at the EWC, where they met onefall day soon after arriving from Southeast Asia.Thanh-Lo LeKhac had come from Hue, Vietnam,to pursue a degree in microbiology and chemistry;Puongpun Sananikone, from Vientiane, Laos, toseek a degree in economics.

Fluent in six languages, Puongpun has workedon every continent in a range of high-profilepositions as an international developmenteconomist. Since 1987, he has headed his ownHonolulu-based consulting firm, PacMar, Inc.,which provides economic and technical advisoryservices throughout the Asia Pacific region.

While Puongpun jets regularly to China,ASEAN countries and Pacific Island nations onPacMar business, Thanh-Lo is busy as a businessand management consultant in the public andprivate sectors in Hawai‘i, Asia and the Pacific.She’s also Hawai‘i’s unofficial ambassador toVietnam, promoting sister city relations,

organizing and leading trade, medical, educationaland humanitarian missions. Locally she can’t sayno to non-profit organizations, especially thosededicated to helping immigrants and minorities.

Both Sananikones have been saluted withvarious awards for their public service. Thanh-Lowas named 2003 Minority Small BusinessAdvocate of the Year by the U.S. Small BusinessAdministration. Puongpun received the 2003University of Hawai‘i Alumni AssociationDistinguished Alumni Award. In 2005, hewas named to the EWC Board of Governors,becoming the first EWC alumnus to serve onthe board.

Since their return to Hawai‘i from New Yorkin 1984, they’ve been ardent supporters of theEWC Foundation, the EWC Alumni Associationand the Friends of the East-West Center. Theymentor students in the EWC’s Asia PacificLeadership Program. And graciously welcomestudents and EWC visitors into their home forThanh-Lo’s curry dinners.

“In many ways, my East-West Centerexperience prepared me well for the diversemulti-national work and cross-cultural challengesI have had to deal with all over the world,” saysPuongpun. “The East-West Center equipped uswith the ability to look at things from the otherperson’s perspective, across ethnicity, acrosscultural divides. The Center, as envisioned by itsfounders, was about creating human agents ofchange, making long-term change for a betterworld, by promoting mutual understanding.

“Today, given the unstable state of theworld,” he adds, “the East-West Center is morerelevant than ever.” !

Puongpun and Thanh-Lo SananikoneThe Power of Two

PuongpunSananikoneLaos1964, B.A.


Thanh-Lo LeKhacSananikoneVietnam1964, B.A.


In 1998, Hao Ping coordinated President Bill Clinton’s visit to PekingUniversity. He made such an impression on the U.S. president that five yearslater, when Clinton returned to China, he recognized Hao and said, “You’reHao Ping, aren’t you? You were at Bei Da.” (Peking University is known

colloquially in China as Bei Da.)None of this is surprising to those who’ve known Hao since his East-West Center days.

As a graduate student in the early ’90s, he naturally put strangers at ease with a smile that couldwarm the chilliest room. He was so popular with fellow students at Hale M!noa, they tappedhim as floor leader.

At the Center, he learned about the American highereducation system and how to raise funds to support programsand research. “In China much of academic study is lectures,”he said. “Here at the East-West Center, they let you do yourown research work and methodology.”

The Center was initiating the Asian Studies DevelopmentProgram, enabling American college faculty to expand theirknowledge of Asia. The personable Hao provided the directorof the EWC Education Program valuable contacts throughoutChina and offered creative ideas on how to develop theprogram in which American educators learn about China.

After returning to China in the mid-’90s, Hao wasregularly tasked with overseeing state visits of foreigndignitaries, leaders such as Russian President Putin andEgypt’s President Mubarek.

Hao was vice president at Peking University, often referred to as the Harvard of China,when he was named president of Beijing Foreign Studies University in 2005. China’s mostprestigious school for language studies offers 43 foreign languages and boasts some 1,500 graduatesin China’s foreign ministry. In 2007, more than 8,500 Chinese students were enrolled at theuniversity and more than 2,300 international students from 67 countries were studying Chinese.

He traveled widely, forging cross-cultural partnerships between his university andeducational institutions in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. In spring 2009, Hao Ping assumed newduties in the Ministry of Education as vice minister in charge of International Education —recognition of his commitment to cross-cultural learning, enriched by his East-West Centerexperience. !

Hao PingIn China and Abroad, Bridging East and West

Hao PingChina1993, Intern

“I think the East-WestCenter is such a good

place for youngpeople to train,

pursue their thinking,and, with innovation

and hard work,experience American

philosophy andpsychology.”

When she retired fromthe University ofIndonesia at age 55, NastiBachtiar Reksodiputro

was ready for something new and thought,“Wouldn’t it be nice if children could read asmuch as I did as a child?”

Reksodiputro’s mother, father and grandfatherall were teachers, and she grew up in a home filledwith books. An EWC grantee in the pioneer classof 1962, she returned to Indonesia in 1964 with adegree in Teaching English as a Second Language.During her years at the Center, she experiencedthe sharing, support and cooperation amonggrantees and decided to utilize those elements tocreate a library on wheels for children.She enlisted a sister-in-law with administrativeskills and a friend who was an English teacher.The three women recruited another volunteerknowledgeable in children’s literature to join themin assembling a collection of Indonesian andEnglish books.

They worked on the assumption that “doorswill open.” And they did. The head librarian atthe British Consulate offered books from theirjunior section. And Yayasan Pustaka Kelana(the Wandering Books Foundation) was createdwith the help of Nasti’s lawyer husband. Familyand friends pitched in. A van was donated as amobile library. Parking for that first van was inReksodiputro’s garage; when a driver was needed,she drove.

A second van was donated, and then a third.With increasing support, the library continues toexpand and branch out.

Yayasan Pustaka Kelana offers four programs:• The Mobile Library.• The Book Box Lending program, which lends

boxes of books to more than 30 schools inJakarta monthly.

• The Book Bag program, which lends books tostreet vendors who make them available tochildren in their community on a monthlybasis.

• A small community library in a lower middleclass community.

Workshops encourage the writing of children’sbooks, improving the quality of the writing andincreasing the number of Indonesian languagebooks. Out of these workshops, books in Indonesianand English have been written and published.

Today the program truly “wanders” through-out the country in a variety of ways. Reksodiputrohas no idea how many children and youths havebeen able to read books since the foundation gotstarted in 1995, but you can be sure the numbersare vast. !

Nasti ReksodiputroSpreading the Joy of Reading in Indonesia

Nasti ReksudiputroIndonesia1962, TESL


“My East-West Center years havedefinitely had a strong influence on whatI became and have done since then.It has made me pay more attention tomatters outside the teaching of Englishand has made me feel comfortablecommunicating internationally.”

You might say Victor Yano wasdestined from birth for a careerin medicine. His mother namedhim after one of the first Belauan

physicians, who attended Yano’s mother in thedelivery room.

“He was a role model at an early age,” saysYano, who through an EWC scholarship came tothe University of Hawai‘i in the early ’70s fromBelau. Upon receiving a bachelor of sciencedegree in 1974, he attended the John A. BurnsSchool of Medicine in Hawai‘i, graduating in 1978.

After completing post-graduate residency,Yano returned to Koror to practice medicine atthe lone hospital in Belau, in a government-runhealth care system that relied on dispensaries toprovide the bulk of medical care. In Belau, ailingpatients first went to a dispensary; if additionaltreatment was needed, they were referred to thehospital.

Shortly after his return, Yano found himselftending a critically injured visitor. Her husbandhad been killed in a boating accident and thewoman’s condition was deteriorating. There wasno specialist to turn to for a second opinion. Yanogot on the phone to Queen’s Medical Center inHonolulu, consulted with a neurosurgeon whoadvised a surgical procedure that Yano assisted in— and saved the woman’s life. She was eventuallymedivaced to the United States, where sherecovered.

Victor YanoRevolutionizing Health Care in the Pacific


Victor YanoBelau1971, B.S.

A few months later, the grateful family senta donation to Koror that was used to purchaseneurosurgical equipment for the local hospital.That was the beginning of Yano’s career-longcommitment to revolutionize and dramaticallyimprove health care in Belau.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1981, the BelauMedical Clinic opened its doors, operating onprivate funds, including $200,000 raised by theBelau community. With leadership skills andvision, the determined young doctor continuedhis efforts to raise the level of medical care in thePacific. Soon patients were coming from neigh-boring Pacific Island countries to be treated byYano, as word spread of his skill and compassion.

In 1995, Yano was the motivating force behindthe establishment of the Pacific Basin MedicalAssociation, which provides professionaldevelopment and support to medical practitionersthroughout the region. Ten years later, thepresident of Belau appointed Yano to head thenation’s Ministry of Health, where he continuedefforts to enhance patient care, fiscal accountabilityand community participation. Recently, thedoctor raised more than $40,000 to assist thehemodialysis center at Belau National Hospital.

In April 2010, Yano won easy confirmationas Minister of State, a reflection of the esteemwith which he’s held in the island nation. Overthree decades, he’s also mentored every localphysician now practicing in Belau. One of them,Dr. Stevenson J. Kuartei, just succeeded hismentor as Belau’s Minister of Health. Thetransformation of the archipelago’s health caresystem, which Dr. Yano began, continues. !

“Through the East-West Center, webegin to appreciate the diversity ofthe world and validate the real need tostrengthen local cultural practices —dances, chants, folklore, sports,literature, language. That is how westand out as individuals among equallyimportant peoples of the world.”

During the 2008 U.S.presidential campaign,a reporter interviewingKathleen Hall

Jamieson posed a question about Hawai‘i-bornBarack Obama. Jamieson replied, “If you reallywant to understand who Barack Obama is, youhave to understand the culture of inclusivity.You need to go to Hawai‘i.”

Director of the Annenberg Public PolicyCenter at the University of Pennsylvania,where she is also a professor of communications,Jamieson is a leading expert on the media andpolitics, particularly U.S. presidential campaigns.She’s written, co-authored or edited 15 books,among them, “Everything You Think You KnowAbout Politics … and Why You’re Wrong,”published in 2000 and in its 7th printing. She’salso won numerous awards for teaching and forher scholarship.

Every election season, she offers analysis onthe influential PBS programs “NewsHour” withJim Lehrer and “Bill Moyers Journal.” She’s soughtout for commentary in national publications andon National Public Radio. She continues to bringvaluable insight into the 44th president to thesediscussions — a perspective informed and enrichedby her ties to Hawai‘i, which began with a six-month fellowship at the East-West Center in 1985.

Jamieson came to the Center to explore thecontrast between classical Eastern and classicalWestern rhetoric, particularly in Chinese literature.“Specifically in the advice given to the emperor,”she explains. She was fascinated by politics inrelationship to authority, an interest thatcontinues to the present.

Jamieson returned several years later to run anEWC conference that brought together scholarsfrom Asia and the United States. “I thought thescholars from the West had a lot to learn from thescholars from the East. An alternative traditionenables you to see things differently about yourown tradition.”

She was especially interested in metaphor —differences in the way East and West communicate.In Western tradition, Jamieson explains, metaphors

of force are often used to bend an audience to itswill. In the East this may be more nuanced, whichbrings us to Barack Obama and his skills as acommunicator. She sees Obama influenced by theEastern tradition of rhetoric, the implicit ratherthan the explicit.

Such analysis is evidence of how Jamieson’sEast-West Center experience continues to informher efforts to make sense of the media and politicsand educate the electorate for the public good. !

Kathleen Hall JamiesonMaking Sense of the Media and Politics

Kathleen Hall JamiesonUnited States1985, Fellow


“The East-West Center offered you an existing community of individualsvery open to new ideas and very willing to help. It was an ideal community— truly a community.”

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Jose Turquel was a standoutgraduate student in public policyand international relations at theEast-West Center when he

returned to Timor-Leste (East Timor) on vacation.That vacation changed his life, opening a door torepresent his country in ways beyond hisexpectations.

In Dili, he participated in a panel discussionon leadership and nation-building. Impressedwith his presentation, Timor-Leste President andNobel Peace Prize Laureate Jose Ramos-Hortainvited Turquel to meet with him. As a result oftheir conversation, the newly elected presidentasked Turquel to join his cabinet as chief of staff.

It was an offer Turquel couldn’t decline, andhe agreed to take a six-month break from EWCstudies toward a master’s degree. He set to workreorganizing and restructuring the Office of the

Jose TurquelNation-Building in Timor-Leste


Jose TurquelTimor-Leste2002, B.A.

President of the world’s newest nation. “After sixmonths, I thought that my ‘tour of duty’ had cometo an end,” Turquel recalls, “but reality dictateddifferently.”

Ramos-Horta then appointed his chief of staffto an even more influential position as Directorof the International Relations Department andForeign Policy Advisor to the President. Turquelorganizes and coordinates external policy for theOffice of the President, in close collaborationwith the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministryof Defense and Security, the National Parliament,Timor-Leste embassies and diplomatic corps.He manages the official visits of the president andrepresents Timor-Leste at international conclaves,essentially in the role of a senior diplomat at anambassadorial level.

He’s traveled widely, attending high-levelmeetings of the United Nations General Assembly,Security Council, as well as the Clinton MillennialConference. He’s engaged in conversations withworld leaders, from U.N. Secretary-General BanKi-moon, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachevand former U.S. President Bill Clinton to primeministers and foreign ministers, including U.S.Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“The East-West Center gave me thecredentials and the ticket to go global,” Turquelsays. “Through the East-West Center I found thetrue meaning of act locally and think globally.Nation-building is a process and action, and Ialways try to dedicate my efforts to serve thecommunity, and forge cooperation andunderstanding … to achieve mutual benefitfor all of us.” !

Jose Turquel with former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

From his grandmother, young Albert Wendtlearned the power of storytelling. Born and raisedin Apia, Samoa, he was enchanted by the mythsand legends, chants and poems she told him as a

child. Now in his seventh decade, Wendt is a master storyteller himself,probably the best-known writer in the Pacific.

Wendt’s novels, poetry, essays and plays reflect his Samoan and Pacificroots, address issues of racism, sexism, materialism and colonialism, as wellas universal contradictions and experiences. From the beginning, hisliterature countered the romanticized images of Polynesians popularized byWestern writers. In the 1970s, the publication of his novels gave voice toindigenous cultures and fostered a dynamic period in intellectual and literarylife in the Pacific.

In 1980, Leaves of the Banyan Tree, a saga of Samoan life nowconsidered a classic, won the prestigious Wattie Book of the Year award inNew Zealand. Since then Wendt’s writing has brought him numerous literaryawards for capturing what’s been described as “the rhythms of life andlanguage,” while tackling emerging cultural concerns.

“All of my novels are to some extent autobiographical,” he said in a 1992interview at the University of Hawai‘i. Wendt has had a long association withthe university, most recently in 2004 as the Citizen’s Chair at the UH M"noaDepartment of English. Many of those visits were sponsored by the East-WestCenter, where he was a magnetic presence at seminars and workshops.

Of German and Samoan ancestry, Wendt grew up in a household wheretwo languages, Samoan and English, were spoken. His father was the soleEnglish speaker. At 13, Albert received a government scholarship to attendschool in New Zealand. By the time he entered college he was alreadypursuing a passion for writing. In tandem with a career as an academicand administrator at the University of the South Pacific at Fiji and AucklandUniversity came success as a novelist.

Over the years, as teacher, writer and editor, Wendt has shaped Pacific literature and influencedgenerations of writers across Oceania. In an introduction to an anthology, Wendt wrote of the literaturebeing produced by Pacific writers as “a fabulous storehouse of anthropology, sociology, art, religion, history,dance and music.” As the New Zealand Book Council so aptly pointed out, “Wendt’s own work has made aleading and lasting contribution.” !

Albert WendtMaster Storyteller of the Pacific

Albert WendtSamoa1973, Culture Learning


“Many of my early visits toHawai‘i and my participationin the affairs of theUniversity of Hawai‘i weresponsored and organized byEWC. I was able to meetother academics and writersfrom all round the Pacificand the world, and learnmuch from them. So, mahalo,fa‘afetai lava, EWC!”


Born the son of a tribal chief,Ratu Sir Kamisese K.T. Mara isrecognized as one of the greatstatesmen of the South Pacific.

Tall and aristocratic in bearing, Mara was tappedas a young man for a leadership role as a memberof Fiji’s ruling class. After graduating from OxfordUniversity in 1949, he returned to enter politicsand guide his island nation to independence.

Ratu Sir Kamisese K.T. MaraSouth Pacific Statesman (1920–2004)

Ratu MaraFiji1980, PIDP

achievement, noting the often contentiousrelationships of the emerging nations.

A visionary who sought to build cooperationamong Pacific Island nations and between theIslands and the broader world, he was an activeand strong supporter of the East-West Center.He was the longest tenured member of theCenter’s Board of Governors, serving from1976 to 1986 and 1998 to 2001.

Mara founded the Center’s Pacific IslandsDevelopment Program. “Thanks to his vision,intellectual stimulation and guidance,” affirmsEWC President Charles E. Morrison, “the PacificIslands Development Program is today a vitalorganization, providing practical analysis foraction by Island leaders and linking the PacificIsland nations with the larger Asia Pacific region.”

From 1980 to 1987, Mara served as the firstchair of the Conference of Leaders, a summit of20 leaders of Pacific Island governments. In2000-2001, he stepped in again as acting chair at acritical time when the conference was in need ofleadership. Throughout his life, this South Pacificstatesman was dedicated to advancing the interestsof Fiji and the Pacific Islands on the world stage. !

“The East-West Center is a uniqueorganization in which leaders can reactdirectly with researchers. Nowhereelse in the world will our leaders ofgovernment have a research facilityto help them that way.”

In 1970 he was elected the nation’s first primeminister, served more than 20 years in thatposition, and is remembered as the foundingfather of modern Fiji. During a tumultuousperiod, when Pacific Island nations had justattained independence from colonial powers,Mara steered his neighbors to form the SouthPacific Forum. Upon his death in 2004, tributescited this leadership as perhaps his greatest

Hawai‘i Governor George Ariyoshi and Ratu Mara.

F I F T Y Y E A R S , F I F T Y S T O R I E S | 29Ratu Mara giving remarks in 1980 during the founding meeting of the Paci!c Islands Development Program. Seated behind him areGovernor George R. Ariyoshi, EWC President Everett Kleinjans, and Ambassador Rozanne L. Ridgway of the U.S. Department of State.

“It really was a network, themeeting of all these differentpeople from either the AsiaPacific area, or people likemyself, Americans who weregoing to get involved in theAsia Pacific area.”

Ricardo Trimillos is truly aninternational music man.He’s as comfortableperforming solo on the

Japanese koto or with a gagaku ensemble as he isthe rondalla and kulintang of the Philippines.

The turning point in his life was 1962, whenhe chose to study at the East-West Center ratherthan Juilliard, where he had intended to pursue acareer as a concert pianist. At the Center, hediscovered a world of music and encountered “allthese different people from different places.” Bornin California, Trimillos was raised in San Jose byparents who emigrated from the Philippines.

Through ethnomusicology Trimillos pursuedan interest in the way the humanities cross overinto performance. His studies took him to theUniversity of Cologne in Germany and to UCLA,where he received his Ph.D. with a dissertation onPhilippines music of the Muslim South. In 1968,he returned to the University of Hawai‘i, where,as an award-winning professor of Asian Studiesand ethnomusicology, he’s expanded the breadthand depth of the discipline of music and music-making of the world’s people as expressive artswithin a social environment.

That’s why governments — including theformer Soviet Union, Malaysia, the Philippinesand Hong Kong — have sought him out as aconsultant on arts and public policy. He’salso served on the boards of the UNESCOInternational Council for Traditional Music,the National Endowment for the Arts and theSmithsonian Institution Center for Folklife.

Ricardo TrimillosEast-West Music Man


Ricardo TrimillosUnited States1962, M.A.

As a student at the East-West Center,Trimillos initiated an East-West Fest of musicand dance performed by grantees from Asia,the Pacific Islands and the United States. Yearslater, in a more expansive format, he curated aSmithsonian Folklife Festival that brought folkartists from the Philippines to Washington, D.C.

Equally significant, Trimillos has mentored aremarkable number of today’s leaders in the fieldof ethnomusicology. Always, he encouragesstudents to explore musical traditions beyondtheir own. In 2009, the University of Hawai‘ihonored him for his achievement in guidingstudents to pursue a graduate degree not just as anend in itself, but as preparation for a meaningfullife — a tribute to this East-West music man. !

Imagine looking for ananimal that was so illusive,scientists had decided it wasimpossible to study. Then

consider doing this in the most remote rainforests,in the highlands of Papua New Guinea — whichmeans scaling terrain that’s slippery from 275inches of rain a year.

That’s what Muse Opiang had been doingsince 2001, when after months of searching hefinally came upon a long-beaked echidna, aporcupine-sized creature that looks a lot like a

spiny anteater. The long-beaked echidna lives onlyin New Guinea, belongs to a primitive group ofmammals called monotremes, and is considered aliving link between reptiles and birds to mammals.Over a five-year span, he was able to capture 22echidna and attach transmitters so he could trackthem — his ultimate goal to manage and protectthe species.

It was a dream come true for Opiang, a fieldresearch officer for the Research and ConservationFoundation after graduating from the Universityof PNG. Today he is a world authority on the

echidna, a biologist working on his doctoratethrough the University of Tasmania and co-founder of the Papua New Guinea Instituteof Biological Research.

Through the U.S.-South Pacific ScholarshipProgram, administered by the East-West Center,Opiang completed an internship at the SmithsonianNational Museum of Natural History in 2007.He was called upon to give presentations on hisresearch of one of the oldest, rarest, strangest-looking creatures on Earth that lives mostlyunderground to survive.

And the discoveries continue. In early 2009,Opiang and his mentor Kristofer Helgen, curatorof mammals at the Smithsonian’s Natural Historymuseum, were trekking through a crater morethan 8,800 feet above sea level in PNG rainforestsas part of a BBC expedition. A local escortpointed out a large rodent on the forest floor —surprisingly tame and unafraid of the twoscientists. The three-foot long Bosavi woolly ratis a newfound species. “As biologists, we spendplenty of cold, muddy nights in the rain,” Opiangsaid at the time, “but rarely can we expect to berewarded like this!”

His dreams go beyond his own research.“I would like to see more Papua New Guineansdoing research in ecology and conservation,” hesays. “We can serve the very remote communitythrough research where government services arelacking. Conservation is not only for ‘saving thewildlife’ but also ‘serving the community.’ ” !

Muse Opiang‘Saving the Wildlife’ in Papua New Guinea

Muse OpiangPapua New Guinea2006, M.A.


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Three buses enter the groundsof Mauna‘ala, the RoyalMausoleum in Nu‘uanu on theisland of O‘ahu, transporting

students to day one of an unforgettableintroduction to Hawaiian history and culture.

At the entrance to the mausoleum whereHawaiian royalty are buried, the students gather’round Alapaki Luke as he performs an oli, orchant, in Hawaiian. Then they place fragrant mailelei on the tombs of the Kamehameha and Kal!kauaroyal families as he explains the significance of thelei as a tribute.

In this way, the EWC alumnus — whose twograndmothers were Native Hawaiian — begins ahistory lesson about Hawai‘i from the time of thearrival of the first Hawaiians to the present, withvisits to sites such as the lo‘i (taro patches), wherehe grows taro in Kahana Valley, a Hawaiianlanguage immersion school, Waimea Bay, theArizona Memorial and the State Capitol.

From August 2002 to August 2009, Alapakicoordinated various activities for the two-weekorientation of incoming EWC students, instillingan appreciation for Hawai‘i’s native people andthe host culture. During their time with Alapaki,the students experience the true spirit of the ‘!ina(land) and how it influences cultural values.

At the University of Hawai‘i School ofHawaiian Knowledge and Honolulu CommunityCollege, Alapaki teaches courses in HawaiianStudies and Geography of Hawai‘i and assists inthe university’s Ka Papa Lo‘i o K!newai, CulturalGarden Learning Center. He is a member of the

Alapaki LukeAwakening an Appreciation for the ‘!ina


Alapaki LukeUnited States2001, M.A.

State of Hawai‘i Taro Security and Purity TaskForce, an entity established by law to gatherinformation from taro communities in Hawai‘iand address issues to perpetuate the industry andcultural lifestyle.

He still finds time to be one of the most activeEWC alumni, leading orientation sessions andfacilitating presentations and field trips for variousseminars and programs. He has served on theEWCA scholarship committee and is the vicepresident for Participant Affairs on the EWCAInternational Board.

“It has really opened my eyes and helpedme to have a broader perspective about the wayI learn and experience things,” he says of theCenter, “understanding diversity in the world,having more respect for people and cultures.”

He notes all this is compatible with one of thebasic values in Hawaiian culture: “We don’t stoplearning. ‘You observe and look to the source yourwhole life — n!n! i ke kumu.’ ” !

In 1995, Supatra Masdit’sprominence in Thai politics andinternational circles as a leaderfor women’s rights led a foreign

journalist to write: “Will she be Thailand’s first femaleprime minister?” Masdit was about to convene theNon-Government Organizations Forum held inconjunction with the 4th World Conference on Womenin Beijing.

Elected seven times to Thailand’s Parliamentbetween 1979 and 2000, Masdit is the first Thai womanparliamentarian appointed to a cabinet post. She thenserved twice as Minister to the PrimeMinister’s Office. During her first term inthe cabinet, she successfully pushedfor the establishment of Thailand’sNational Commission on Women’sAffairs, which counseled the primeminister on policies concerningwomen’s issues. And she currently isan adviser to the prime minister.

In a chapter she contributed to abook on Women and Politics in Thailand,Masdit wrote that she entered politicsbecause “in my opinion it is the only path toalleviate social disparities effectively.”Initially a volunteer in socialdevelopment programsand universitylecturer, she quicklydetermined, “Icould only haveminimal impacton social injusticeno matter howhard I tried.”

She was inspired by her father’s transformation fromjournalist to successful political leader. RepresentingNakhon Si Thammarat, a province in Southern Thailand,he was outspoken in his belief in an egalitarian society.

While at the East-West Center pursuing a master’sdegree, Masdit was shocked when a 1976 coup resulted inthe deaths of student activists at Thammasat University.She returned to Thailand emboldened to enter the politicalarena and fight corruption, social disparity and unequaldistribution of resources.

By 1989 her achievements in public and social servicehad earned her the title of “Khunying,” bestowed by the

King of Thailand. But Masdit hadn’t completedher work. She served as a founder and

president of the Center for Asia-PacificWomen in Politics, a Manila-based NGOorganized to promote women in politics,and advance economic, social and politicalequity. She represented Thailand atnumerous regional and international

summits.Recently she stepped back from politics

to study Buddhism and pursue meditation.And she joined an EWC alumni effort to supporteducational opportunities for students who

want to study in Hawai‘i. Masdit is aco-chair of the Royal Thai Scholarship

Fund Committee, whichin 2009 announced

a $188,000endowment toassist Thai studentsat the East-WestCenter. !

Khunying Supatra MasditChampioning Women’s Issues in Thailand

Supatra MasditThailand1976, M.A.


“The East-West Center has reallyopened my eyes and helped me tohave a broader perspective aboutthe way I learn and experiencethings, understanding diversity inthe world, having more respect forpeople and cultures.”

“Studying at the Center — eating,sleeping, breathing Asia in my dormrooms and classrooms — was achallenging and enlightening entryto this lifework.”

At the start of each semester atKyoto University, students inCarl Becker’s classes are alwaysstartled when he first addresses

them. Becker writes and speaks Japanese sofluently, that if you didn’t see his face, you’d thinkyou were listening to a senior Japanese scholar.

In a sense, you are. Becker is the firstAmerican to be fully tenured and promotedwithin the Japanese national university system.He’s spent 30 of the last 37 years in Japan. In 1992he was honored with a tenured professorship atKyoto University, one of Japan’s most prestigiousinstitutions of higher learning. Becker’s daily life— including lectures, research and publishing —is entirely in Japanese.

In English or Japanese, Becker engages thelistener. His undergraduate ethics courses drawhundreds of students keenly interested in thespiritual and cultural issues that influence life-and-death decision-making in transplantation,euthanasia, suicide and elder care in 21st centuryJapan.

Even before his arrival at the Center in 1972,the Vietnam War had concerned Becker withissues of death and dying, while his Japaneseand Indonesian roommates and EWC-trainedprofessor, Tom Fennell at Principia College,had whetted his interest in Asia.

Carl BeckerPioneering Work on Issues of Life and Death


Carl BeckerUnited States1972, M.A.

At the East-West Center, Becker focused hisPh.D. studies in Comparative Philosophy andReligion. Then assisted by a Prince AkihitoScholarship in Japan, he immersed himself inits language and culture. Soon he was doingpioneering work on end-of-life issues withwhich societies and governments wrestle today,especially in countries like Japan with rapidlyaging populations.

“The Buddhist Four Noble Truths of Birth,Age, Sickness and Death inform my research inhealing, ethics, value systems, logics and worldviews,” Becker writes. “My work has moved fromstudies of religious experiences to concern withdeath and dying, and the kinds of education thatcan improve people’s mental and spiritual health.”

In Japan he’s involved in projects addressingelder care, caregiver burnout, grief and bereavement.Asked to help design hospices, Becker conductedsurveys to determine how the elderly in Japanwant to spend the end of their lives. The surveysfound that even modern Japanese hope to die ontatami mats, gazing out over the sky or seascape.

Over the decades Becker has delved intowritings dating back to the 5th century in Chinaand the 10th century in Japan, that record howthese civilizations approached death and dying.Acquainting ourselves with cultures like Chinaand Japan, which have flourished for thousands ofyears, he believes, will help us understand “whatkind of world views can make life more peacefuland sustainable.” !

At the Lemongrass Cafébordering Honolulu’sChinatown, you canenjoy Burmese chicken

and pumpkin curry on Mondays, an Indonesianbeef special on Thursdays, Singaporean food onTuesdays and Laotian food on Wednesdays. Oftenyou’ll find Tin Myaing Thein stirring the curry inthe kitchen with recent immigrants who arelearning to start their own food service business.

The café is a business incubator begun by thePacific Gateway Center (PGC), a 35-year-oldnon-profit that offers health and social servicesto immigrants, refugees and low-income people.The energetic Dr. Myaing is executive directorof PGC, formerly called the Immigrant Center,which has helped hundreds of Southeast Asianimmigrants and refugees get a fresh start in Hawai‘i.

In recent years, thousands of Micronesianshave migrated to the state, primarily for healthcare, straining the community’s social safety net.At PGC, the Pacific Islanders are provided Englishclasses, computer training and employmentassistance as well as translation services.

Born and raised in Burma, Dr. Myaing knowswhat it’s like to be a newcomer in a foreign land.She came to the United States as an East-West Centergrantee in 1963, and, like many EWC students at thetime, it was her first venture outside her country.“The Center is the foundation upon which I builtmy life,” she told a Honolulu newspaper when shereceived an EWC Distinguished Alumni Award.

And what a trail she has blazed. Galvanized byan agenda-setting meeting in 1977 in Houston forthe United Nations Women’s Conference, Dr.Myaing founded the National Network of Asia-Pacific Island Women. President Jimmy Carterappointed her the first Asian woman member ofthe President’s Advisory Committee for Women.

For her work on women’s issues, she washonored with the Human Civil Rights Awardfrom the National Education Association in 1979.In the mid-’80s she directed the AmericanAssociation of University Women EducationFoundation, which had a $27 million endowment.

Since her return to Hawai‘i, her efforts haveexpanded to assist low-income and disadvantagedminorities realize their dreams in their newhomeland. The Pacific Gateway Center offersservices in more than 33 languages in areas ofbusiness and finance, housing, health, educationand employment. Dr. Myaing radiates warmth

and a can-do approach to challenges: Identifythe need, then address it as “a solvable

situation.” !

Tin Myaing TheinHelping Immigrants Get a Fresh Start

Tin Myaing TheinBurma1963, B.A.


With some 4,000 members and more than 300 events a year, the American Chamber ofCommerce in Shanghai is the largest and fastest growing American Chamber in the AsiaPacific region. Under the leadership of Brenda Lei Foster, its first woman president, AmChamShanghai — as the locals know the organization — is on pace to become the largest

international business association in China.As the head of the chamber known as the “Voice of Business in China,” Foster finds herself interacting with

government officials and business executives from all over the world, including China and the United States. Shetravels regularly to cities throughout China where chambers are eager for American businesses to invest in their areas.

“We’re big on building partnerships that have global reach and can support U.S. competition in China,” sheexplains. In 2009, for example, the Chamber released a Green Cap report — amulti-national, multi-corporation endeavor to chart a road map of China’s “greentech” or “clean tech” industry opportunities in nine different sectors.

As her fifth year in Shanghai approached, Foster was especially proud ofAmCham’s work in collaboration with the Soong Ching Ling Foundation. TheChamber partnered with the foundation to build clinics in rural China, in some ofthe poorest areas in Guizhou province, where people have never had health care —

and many have never seen a foreigner. The programhas been nationally recognized as a model in China.

Foster has logged thousands of miles as anactive member of the Asia Pacific Council forAmerican Chambers, frequently speaking orleading training sessions and strategic planningworkshops in the region.

In June 2009, she received the AthenaInternational Award for leadership, the first to an

expatriate American. Foster was honored for her AmCham work, recognition morethan 30 years ago of the importance of China, as well as her leadership in business,international and women’s affairs. During a career dedicated to international relations,Foster was an adviser to two of Hawai‘i’s governors on national and international issues.

From a school girl’s interest in China, Foster went on to earn a B.A. and M.A. inChinese studies from the University of Washington before coming to the East-WestCenter in 1976 on a fellowship, beginning a career path that eventually led to Shanghai.

“When I talk to students I tell them you have to have a passion for what youdo,” Foster says, with characteristic enthusiasm. “I knew I wanted to work in inter-national affairs and I have a love for China. I followed my passion and my love.” !

Brenda Lei FosterPromoting U.S.-China Business Ties

Brenda FosterUnited States1976, Intern

“My EWC experience is whatopened the doors for me toeven more opportunities inthe international arena. Itshowed me the importanceof people and partnerships— and cooperation and whatyou can achieve.”

“Being an East-West Centergrantee was truly a turningpoint in my life. It gave me anopportunity to acquire themuch needed knowledge andskills not available at home.It’s arguably a once-in-a-life-time opportunity for me as astudent from a developingcountry.”


Tum May witnessed the starvation,suffering and death of Cambodia’sKilling Fields. “I still remembervividly as I was escaping from the

Khmer Rouge in March 1979, I had a burningdesire to go back to school and get as much of aneducation as I can,” he says.

That was the beginning of May’s “insatiablethirst for knowledge and skills to help put Cambodiaback on track after years of havoc and destructionwreaked by the Khmer Rouge regime.”

In the early 1980s, basic social services werenon-existent. May began work as a public healthworker, having acquired enough practicalknowledge to be hired by a district health center.He traveled from village to village in an oxcartwith his itinerant health team, promotingawareness about public health, vaccination andprevention of communicable diseases. After eachday’s work, leading health education sessions tohelp villagers understand the importance ofprevention and basic medical care, he felt animmense sense of accomplishment.

Through his acquaintance with East-WestCenter Research Fellow Judy Ledgerwood, whowas doing field work in Cambodia, May learnedof the opportunities to further his public healtheducation at the East-West Center. From 1994 to1996, he pursued studies at the School ofPublic Health at the University ofHawai‘i.

Upon his return to PhnomPenh, May found himself chargedwith solving public health problems ona national level. He joined the United Nations

Tum MayBoosting Public Healthand Opportunities in Cambodia

Tum MayCambodia1994, MPH

Population Fund (UNFPA) in 1998 and nowmanages the organization’s Cambodia office.While he misses the one-on-one contact withvillagers he found so fulfilling, he’s involved inshaping policies to improve the health of familiesthroughout his country.

May and his team assist the Cambodiangovernment in forming guidelines and strategiesto reduce poverty and support sustainabledevelopment, by addressing population,reproductive health and gender concerns.His office provides support to improve maternaland child health, collection of population data,and gender equality with a focus on promotingreproductive rights and addressing sexual andgender-based violence. And they’ve begun tochart signs of success.

“The ancient Chinese sage, Confucius, oncesaid, ‘Get the families right, and all the rest ofsociety will take care of itself.’ If individuals takecare of their family, the whole society will betaken care of,” says May. “By this analogy, Ibelieve that everyone can make a difference byway of their contribution to society andcommunity, be they farmers, officeworkers or academics — eachcan make a difference intheir own way.” !


During his years as executivedirector of the PhilippineRice Research Institute(PhilRice), Santiago Obien

witnessed a gray-to-green revolution that extendedfrom his home province of Ilocos Norte to thesouth, in a nation dependent on rice as a staplefood.

Under his guidance, PhilRice partnered withthe International Rice Research Institute (IRRI),which developed the miracle rice that made possiblewhat was once just a dream of self-sufficiency.Obien anticipates the Philippines will soon beself-sufficient in the growing of rice.

A scientist, who received a master’s degree inagronomy and weed science and then a Ph.D. insoil science as an East-West Center grantee, Obienbuilt PhilRice into a model research institution.He was tapped to be PhilRice executive directorafter serving concurrently as president of theMariano Marcos State University and director ofthe Philippine Tobacco Research and TrainingCenter. There he created an award-winning

Santiago Obien‘Guiding Father’ of Philippines Rice Industry

Santiago ObienPhilippines1961, M.A.

research center on the campus, recruiting some240 researchers who were dispatched to branchstations and on-farm research sites.

That success brought him to the attentionof the Philippine government, which wanted a

first-class national research institute. “To buildworld-class institutions, we had to mobilize

resources, harness talents and skills ofmany people, link with several

institutions,” he recalls. He utilizedhis extensive administrative and

technical knowledge, combined with social andcultural skills, to establish strong collaborationswith universities and research organizations inChina, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia andIndia.

“My experiences at the East-West Centercame in handy,” he says. “People are all happywhen they are treated nicely, when we understandtheir specific needs, respecting their habits andeven religious inclinations. We did all this at theEWC, respecting differences but building bridgesusing our similarities.”

In 2000, Obien was honored as a “guidingfather” of the Philippine rice industry by IRRIupon his retirement from PhilRice. Over thedecades he trained hundreds of men and women,highly regarded scientists and researchers inacademic and research institutions in thePhilippines and the region, producing newtechnologies and guiding a new generationof students.

And the green revolution in the Philippinescontinues. In Mindanao, a woman farmerharvested 600 kilograms of rice from 1 kilogramof seeds she had planted after a three-day trainingworkshop attended by 3,500 small-scale farmers.“In just a short time, farming became moreprofitable and the household had more riceto eat than they ever had before,” says Obien.“Yes, there is hope for every farmer with newtechnology.” !

Sung Chul Yang experienced the nightmare of war as a child. Bornin the southwestern region of South Korea, he was 10 years oldwhen the Korean War erupted.

“The destruction was a terrible thing to witness,” he recalled inan interview with the University of Hawai‘i in 2003. “I saw dead bodies in the ditches ofmy hometown. Empty shells were my toys; my friends and I collected them and playedsoldier. We lived in a world where death and destruction were simply routine.”

At a young age, Yang perceived war as “a tragic merry-go-round.” So it is nosurprise that his professional career has been devoted to efforts toward reconciliationand peace between North and South Korea.

Arriving at the East-West Center in 1965 to pursue a master’s degree, he encounteredstudents from other countries and at first was startled by how little other students knewabout Korea. But with typical self-reflection, hequickly realized he needed to raise his awareness ofthe world around him, too, and sought to understanddifferent points of view and the cultures of hisfellow grantees.

Yang proceeded to earn a Ph.D. from theUniversity of Kentucky. He spent 30 years as auniversity professor in Kentucky and Indiana, thenSouth Korea, before his election to the Korean National Assembly, where hechampioned reconciliation and reunification between the two Koreas. An internationallyrenowned expert on Korean politics and diplomacy, he served as the Republic of Korea’sambassador to the U.S. from 2000 to 2003.

Today Ambassador Yang resides just outside Seoul, and chairs the advisorycommittee of the Kim Dae-Jung Peace Foundation. He continues to advocate forreconciliation and reunification. Years ago, he learned war “is not ‘the continuationof foreign policy by other means,’ but a policy failure. War-mongering is easy …but peace-making, that’s a huge challenge.”

He is fond of the Korean saying: “In 10 years, even mountains and rivers change.”For this engaging man, that expresses the hope he harbors that North and South Koreawill be unified in his lifetime.

“I am by nature an optimist,” the ambassador says. “There is no better alternative toreconciliation and peace on the Korean peninsula. Ultimately, there will be no lastingpeace in East Asia without a peaceful reunification of Korea.” !

Sung Chul YangAn Ambassador for Reconciliationand Peaceful Reunification

Sung Chul YangSouth Korea1965, M.A.


“I not only owe a lifelonggratitude to the East-West Center, but to theU.S. government andAmerican people as well.”

As the new millennium dawned,Riley Lee performed on theshakuhachi from the top of theSydney Opera House on an

internationally televised program. That appearancewas symbolic of his success in elevating recognitionof the traditional Japanese flute to audiencesworldwide.

In 1980 he became the first non-Japanese toattain the rank of dai shihan or Grand Master.Quite a distinction for a kid born in Texas, whoat one time played bass for a rock band. Lee firstheard the shakuhachi on an LP record in highschool, after his family had moved to Hawai‘i.“I was totally taken by it,” he remembers. “Thesound was coming from some living sentient beingthat was speaking to me. I thought, ‘Wow, this isreally neat.’ ”

But it was in Japan in 1970 that Lee boughthis first shakuhachi and took his first lesson. Forseven years he lived in Japan, surviving rigorousinstruction from traditional teachers. He trainedbarefoot in the snow. Blew into his flute underwaterfalls. Practiced in blizzards until iciclesformed at the end of the instrument. He’d alreadytoured internationally with a Japanese troupe as afull-time performer on the shakuhachi and taikodrum when he returned to Hawai‘i.

Riley LeeThe ShakuhachiGoes Universal

Riley LeeUnited States1984, M.A.


“Going to the East-West Center allowed meto feel more at home with being part of this

international community. What I wasmissing, that sense of belonging to the land,

I gained by feeling a part of the world. “

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In Honolulu, ethnomusicologists RicardoTrimillos and Barbara Smith persuaded him topursue graduate studies at the University ofHawai‘i through the East-West Center. Lee’steacher in Japan also encouraged him. “Myteacher thought that by getting more academiccredentials,” Lee recalls, “I’d be able to bring theshakuhachi to the West better than if I was just aperformer.”

After completing his master’s, Lee went on tocomplete a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from theUniversity of Sydney, where he is on the faculty.And for more than 24 years, Australia has been thestaging ground in his endeavor to make theshakuhachi as universal as the piano or the guitar.

Along the way Lee has established himself asan innovator, performing as soloist on theshakuhachi with musicians on the harp, cello,saxophone, tabla, guitar, didjeridu (nativeAustralian flute) and even symphony orchestras.He’s taught at Princeton, published widely andperformed extensively. More than 50 of hiscommercial recordings are sold worldwide.He co-founded TaikOz, one of Australia’s premierperformance groups.

In 2008 he was artistic director of the 5thWorld Shakuhachi Festival in Sydney. More than450 participants and performers from everycontinent except Antarctica gathered to showcasethe versatility of the shakuhachi. “It wastremendous,” marvels Lee. “It was like theShakuhachi Olympics.” !

“We in South Asia take pride in ourculture, values, respect for life, but allof these are reversed in the case ofwomen,” Arfa Zehra told an audience

at a United Nations Development Fund for Women(UNIFEM) regional conference in 2008. Zehra wasspeaking as the head of the delegation from Pakistan,and chairperson of the country’s National Commissionon the Status of Women. “The world has to make it upto women,” she encouraged, “and make it up rapidly.”

A longtime advocate of gender equality andending violence against women, Zehra spoke ofUNIFEM as “not only the conscience of the U.N. butalso of governments and civil society.

“We have the greatest challenge on our hands,”she said. “We have to change history — let us sharethat burden equally.”

In her role on the national commission, as she hasthroughout a distinguished career, Zehra served as aconscience for Pakistan. That same year she led adelegation to the U.N.’s Commission on the Status ofWomen in New York. As a history professor and thenleader of Lahore College for Women, she pushed forequality beyond the campus. “I observed my mothergoing through life in a stereotypical male-dominatedsociety,” she says. “The early impressions of such lifeconditions made me think about the inequities andinjustices so common to the underprivileged sectionsof society, especially women across the board.”

Her achievements have brought her national andinternational awards, but Zehra considers her mostimportant accomplishment her role in the government’spassage of the Women Protection Act in 2006. Thelegislation ensures protection to women from “faulty

and prejudiced laws.” Last year, several bills wereintroduced into the Parliament to extend protectionof women domestically and in the workplace.

Zehra sees more possibilities for positive change.She continues to teach history, now at FormanChristian College University, promote interfaithdialogue, literacy programs and basic health awareness— as well as lead the EWCA Lahore Chapter. At the EWC,she earned a master’s degree and then a Ph.D. andreturned with much more, she says, including “anenhanced confidence in human potential and capacities.”

“I learned to accept and examine issues,challenges and problems without getting angry orthreatened,” she says, “My optimism was reassuredof possibilities, no matter how grim or discouragingthe situation might be.” !

Arfa ZehraA Voice for Women and Equality in Pakistan

Arfa ZehraPakistan1978, Ph.D.


Elizabeth “Betty” Bullard wasborn to teach. Former studentswill tell you Miss Bullard wasthe teacher “who inspired you

more than anyone else.” She didn’t pigeon-holestudents. At a time when the South was resisting civilrights, she was color-blind. In the ’60s in North Carolina,where she was born and raised, her American Historyclass was the class you didn’t want to miss.

Then she came to the East-West Center for aTeacher Interchange Program, a one-year non-degreeprogram for social studies teachers from Asia and theUnited States. And there she found a new passion: Asia.As longtime friends noted, you could always hear NorthCarolina when Bullard spoke, but her heart forever afterher EWC experience was in the Far East.

Like many of the TIP teachers, after her year at theEWC, Bullard went on to earn advanced degrees — first,a master’s in education from the University of NorthCarolina in Chapel Hill, followed by a doctorate ineducation from Duke University. She then dedicatedherself to think globally through her work in theclassroom, on television and public programs,always with great energy, enthusiasm andintellect.

Bullard became a curriculumspecialist, then director of internationaleducation for the North CarolinaDepartment of Public Instruction. InRaleigh, she hosted her own publictelevision program on world cultures. Shespent five years as director of education forthe Asia Society in New York before joining theUniversity of South Carolina as a graduateprofessor of education.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed Bullardto the President’s Commission on Foreign Languageand International Studies. Later she served as chiefconsultant to Walter Cronkite’s television series,“Why in the World?” By the time she retired from theUniversity of South Carolina, her honors included North

Carolina’s Outstanding Educator Award, nationalawards for excellence in writing, and the

University of North Carolina OutstandingAlumna of the Year award in 1995.

A firm believer in the mission of theEast-West Center, Bullard took on theresponsibility of chairing the ’60s Alumni

Endowment Fund Committee, inspiring itsmembers to think big and set high goals.

More than $300,000 has been raised by the’60s alumni, followed by $200,000 by the ’70salumni, enabling the Center to strengthen its

student program — Betty Bullard’s lastingcontribution toward the education of students

from Asia, the Pacific and the United States. !

Elizabeth “Betty” BullardBorn to Teach (1930–2008)

Elizabeth BullardUnited States1967, TIP

“I would definitely saythat there has been

some EWC influencein how I plan and

execute programs inthe monasteries, in

terms of creatinggoal-orientedprojects and

becoming a moreeffective leader.

I think my experiencewith the EWC

leadership programhas enhanced my

ability to approachprojects with a larger

world view andincorporate new

ideas and methodsthat have been

effective in otherregions.”



From the main monasteryin Thimpu, RinchenWangyel can see the easternHimalayas, like snow-

capped guardians watching over the kingdomof Bhutan. In December 2005, Rinchen returnedto Taschichho Dzong Temple after completinghis master’s degree in religious studies at theEast-West Center, expecting to resume thesolitude of monastic life.

Instead he found himself immersed inpreparations for “The Dragon’s Gift: The SacredArts of Bhutan,” an extraordinary exhibition ofworks of art that had never been seen outside thekingdom. The landmark show opened at theHonolulu Academy of Arts in February 2008before embarking on a worldwide tour. Rinchenaccompanied Bhutanese delegations to Honoluluand other destinations in connection with thetour.

This work was in addition to his position asdirector of planning for all state-supportedmonasteries in the country, as part of the Councilfor Religious Affairs. Fluent in English, Rinchenworked alongside Western curators researching artpieces specific to Bhutanese tradition for theexhibition. He assisted with the translations sothat they authentically reflected Buddhist heritage.

For the gentle-spoken monk, his role in thebridging of East and West through art was a logicalnext step after two years at the East-West Center,first in the Asia Pacific Leadership Program, thenas a degree fellow.

Rinchen WangyelOpening a Window to ‘The Sacred Arts of Bhutan’

Rinchen WangyelBhutan2004, APLP

In Hawai‘i, dressed ininformal monk’s robes —“aloha style” robes, he calledthem — Rinchen learnedabout other cultures,religious traditions andmade many friends.“In Bhutan,” he explains,“I’m exposed only toBuddhism, to the localtraditions. I don’t haveaccess to a whole lot ofinformation.” He wasinterested in the socialaspect of the study of religions and“what religion can contribute to building a morepeaceful and tolerant global community.”

During his 20 years in the monastery, Rinchenhas distinguished himself. He was involved in theeducation of young monks in the country andworked with United Nations agencies to improvesanitation in the monasteries. Prior to coming tothe Center as an APLP fellow, he managed theScriptural Preservation Project of Bhutan’s CentralMonastic Body, an effort to preserve his nation’sreligious and cultural heritage by documenting anddisseminating its arts, history, rituals and practicesso they could be more accessible to laypeople.

“The monasteries in Bhutan are noted for theirseclusion and isolation and for centuries have keptoutside influences at a minimum,” he says. “This isslowly beginning to change.” He believes hisappointment to a significant position in the monasticestablishment testifies to the importance beingattached to change and sustainable development. !

In 1976, the Hawaiianvoyaging canoe H"k#le‘acompleted a historicjourney, sailing 2,300

miles between Hawai‘i and Tahiti withoutmodern-day navigational instruments. At thehelm of the 62-foot replica of an ancient voyagingcanoe was navigator Mau Piailug from theMicronesian island of Satawal, in the PacificIsland nation of Yap.

It had been more than 600 years since canoeshad made the journey along the ancestralPolynesian sea route — and the H"k#le‘a launcheda renaissance of voyaging, canoe building andnon-instrument navigation that began in Hawai‘iand now extends across Polynesia.

None of this could have happened if theunassuming Piailug had not agreed to share thetraditional seafaring knowledge passed on to himby his grandfather. In 1976, the East-West Centerwas asked by University of Hawai‘i anthropologistBen Finney, also of the Polynesian VoyagingSociety, to help find a navigator from Micronesia.In that corner of the Pacific, a handful ofMicronesians were still sailing between remoteislands using traditional methods. Piailug acceptedan invitation from the East-West Center to cometo Hawai‘i as a special fellow.

Born in 1932, he was tapped by his masternavigator grandfather to carry on a traditionessential to survival in Satawal. Six hundred peoplelive on the island, only a mile and a half long and amile wide. The navigator takes the canoe into thevast ocean to catch fish so his neighbors can eat.

Mau PiailugThe Navigator Who Launched a Renaissance in the Pacific


Mau PiailugMicronesia1975, Culture Learning

PHOTO: MONTE COSTA

S.R. Nathan, the secondelected president of Singapore,has enjoyed a distinguishedcareer that has taken him from

social work to journalism and foreign service.Despite the loss of his father at a young age, he

applied himself to his studies and graduated withdistinction from the University of Malaya in 1954, astandout in the first class to receive diplomas in socialwork. He began a life in public service in the areas of socialwelfare and labor, eventually earning postings in theMinistries of Defense, Foreign Affairs and Home Affairsbefore being appointed executive chairman of The StraitsTimes. That brought him in the 1980s to the East-WestCenter for regional conferences sponsored by the Cultureand Communication Institute.

But outside of Singapore he is best-known for hisdiplomatic service. Nathan was High Commissioner toMalaysia (1988-90) and Singapore’s ambassador to theUnited States (1990-96). In each of those postings, heserved as Singapore’s representative during difficultperiods in foreign relations with his host countries.

In Malaysia, he stepped into the position soon afterthe visit of an Israeli president to Singapore, which createdtension with Malaysia. In Washington, he was ambassadorduring American protests of the caning of an Americancitizen living in Singapore found guilty of committingvandalism.

Earlier, as director of the Security and IntelligenceDivision, he was thrust into the spotlight as chiefnegotiator in a hijacking and hostage-taking incident in1974. The hostages were eventually released. Whether asenvoy or negotiator, Nathan has demonstrated diplomaticskills and a steadiness that have served him wellthroughout his long career. !

S.R. NathanPresident of Singapore

S.R. NathanSingapore1984, Senior Seminar


At a very young age, Mau was placed in tidepools so that he could sit in the water and sensethe changes in the sea’s movements. At the ageof four, he began to sail with his grandfather.Through these experiences came an inherentconnection with the heavens and the ocean —the ancient mariner’s skills.

In 1979 Piailug agreed to teach a young NativeHawaiian, Nainoa Thompson, the traditional ways— how to steer by stars, wind, waves, current, theflight of birds. With Thompson as navigator, theH"k#le‘a has voyaged throughout the Pacific, mostrecently to Japan, and is planning to sail aroundthe world in 2012.

Historic sea voyages across vast stretches ofocean were made possible through the generosityof Piailug, who found in Hawai‘i an interest in a3,000-year-old tradition not shared by the youngpeople of his island. Before Thompson began hisfirst voyage as a navigator, he recalled Piailugadvising him to keep in mind an image of theisland that was his destination. “Don’t ever losethat image or you will be lost,” Piailug told him.It’s a lesson, Thompson realized, that applies toany journey: Trust yourself, hold steady to yourvision, and you will arrive at your destination. !

PHOTO: DARREN CHAN

Have a cause worth fighting for? You’ll want AmyAgbayani on your side. Those who know her, especiallyEast-West Center alumni who were classmates in the’60s, know her as fearless in her quest for social justice.

Since receiving her Ph.D. in political science as an East-West Centergrantee from the Philippines, Agbayani has successfully establishedprograms that promote multi-culturalism, civil rights and improving thestatus of Filipinos in Hawai‘i. In 1989, the Honolulu YWCA honored herfor “her leadership as a strong voice for civil rights, immigrant rights,workers rights, and equity and diversity in higher education for minoritystudents at the University of Hawai‘i.”

Agbayani is founding director of Student Equity, Excellence andDiversity (SEED), which provides programs for the recruitment and successof Native Hawaiian, Filipino and other students from underrepresentedgroups at the University of Hawai‘i. She’s an on-campus and communitychampion for women, students with disabilities, adults returning to school,and gay, lesbian and transgender individuals.

Over the years, Agbayani obtained millions of dollars for UH collegescholarships for low-income high-achieving students as well as funds forcommunity outreach for recently arrived immigrant children and otherdisadvantaged students to prepare them in secondary school for highereducation. Prior to her work with SEED, Agbayani founded and was thefirst director of Operation Manong (now the Office of MulticulturalServices at the university).

It’s been said if you want to get something done, ask a busy person.Agbayani is active in a long list of community organizations, often inleadership positions. She was appointed by the governor to be the firstchair of the Hawai‘i Civil Rights Commission and member of the Hawai‘iJudicial Selection Commission.

Asked to reflect on her many accomplishments, she says, “My mostrewarding professional achievement has been mentoring young universitystudents who have become leaders serving the community with integrity.” !

Amy AgbayaniAdvocate for Social Justice


Amy AgbayaniPhilippines1964, Ph.D.

“The foundation of myprofessional work andphilosophy of service wasformed during the time Iwas an EWC scholarshipstudent in the 1960s.”

All of China caught Olympicsfever in the summer of 2008,when Beijing hosted theinternational games. Even the

people of Honghe Hani and Yi AutonomousPrefecture in Yunnan — a remote regionbordering Vietnam — felt the excitement.

“The Olympics is not just for athletes and forphysical competition,” Zhao Zhenge told EWCfriends at the time. “2008 is the Olympic year forall Chinese — not just for Beijing or for big citieswhich are hosting Olympic events.”

He also observed that “as more and moreathletes and visitors come to China, Chinesepeople are becoming more interested in learningEnglish and in learning about foreign cultures,and are preparing for constructive exchange anddialogue.”

At the time, Zhenge was lieutenant governorof the southeastern prefecture known for itsdazzling landscape, natural resources, and thecolorful traditional culture of its ethnic minoritygroups. He was responsible for tourism, culture,physical education and mass media affairs, whichplunged him into planning, policymaking andcharting blueprints for action in those areas, aswell as poverty alleviation efforts.

“The new friends I made during my post thereand the undertakings and services that I havededicated there greatly enriched my life experienceand opened my view and vision,” he said, “whichwill surely help my thorough understanding ofChina, its exciting progress and development aswell as problems, difficulties and challenges.”

Zhenge is now based in Beijing, as deputydirector general of the Exhibition Departmentof the China Council for the Promotion ofInternational Trade. His new assignment took himto Shanghai, where he was in charge of protocol forthe China Pavilion and coordination of domesticparticipation in the World Expo 2010 Shanghai.

In his work, he finds himself applyingleadership skills developed as a fellow in the2002-2003 Asia Pacific Leadership Program at theEast-West Center. “Successful leaders need to havemulti-dimensional perspectives of regional issues

and a network of support to achieve the program’smission and values,” he believes. “Leaders need tobe sensitive to development needs in the regionand be innovative and action-oriented indeveloping solutions for change.”

Zhenge prizes the APLP alumni network as“a very rich resource for linkages and interaction”in the region. An avid supporter of the EWCleadership program, he’s encouraged Chineseprofessionals to apply and also recommendedcandidates from the country’s ethnic minoritygroups. !

Zhao ZhengeApplying Leadership Skills, Valuing Diversity

Zhao ZhengeChina2002, APLP


“The East-West Center iseducating a new generation of

journalists to carry in-depthknowledge of Asia to their

viewers and readersall over the world.”

The impact of the economiccrisis in Asia. The Japanesehealth care system. U.S.-Chinatrade relations. As the New

York-based correspondent for CNN Business News,Kitty Pilgrim covers a vast marketplace of economicissues with national and global implications.

Known for her cool, calm and professionaldelivery, Pilgrim’s reports are broadcast on CNNWorldwide programs on TV, radio and online.

Kitty PilgrimInforming Viewers on a World of Economic Trends


Kitty PilgrimUnited States2002, Journalism

She was a regular correspondent for Lou Dobbs’primetime CNN “Moneyline” program, whichwas on the air until Fall 2009; she also served asthe chief substitute anchor.

Pilgrim earned her stripes at CNN, beginningas a production assistant for CNN Business Newsin 1986, and was named business news correspondentin 1990. She anchored the morning program“Early Edition” and CNN’s “Your Money” onpersonal finance.

Her extensive coverage of the Russianeconomy in 1991, the end of apartheid in SouthAfrica in 1993 and live broadcasts from Havana in1995 won her media awards. A longtime memberof the Council on Foreign Relations, shecontributes an understanding of global economictrends to public discussions and is also on theCarnegie Council on Ethics and InternationalAffairs Roundtable on Foreign Policy.

Off camera, Pilgrim has carved out time topursue writing of a different dimension. In theSpring of 2011, Scribner will publish the first in aseries of adventure novels authored by Pilgrim,which focus on scientific discovery andexploration.

An active alumna of the East-West Center, shegraciously assists the Center’s Media Programwith arrangements when journalists visit NewYork City. She participated in two Center mediaprograms — the Hong Kong JournalismFellowship Program and the Korea-U.S.Journalists Exchange — that travel to the AsiaPacific region and expose media to the complexityof political, social, economic and cultural issues.

Pilgrim returned to Honolulu in 2007 to bepart of the Center’s first Northeast AsiaJournalists Dialogue, a lively exchange amongmedia, scholars and policymakers on the mostsignificant and sensitive issues facing the U.S.,Japan and South Korea.

“My experience with the East-West Centerhas been the foundation of a new understandingof Asia,” she says. “I have been able to exploretopics and countries that I never would have hadthe opportunity to experience.” !

Okinawa in 1962 was still undergoing post-warreconstruction when Ch"k" Takayama was acceptedas a grantee at the East-West Center. “It was my longcherished dream to expand my academic knowledge,

broaden my international view and understand a different culture bystudying at a university in the United States,” he recalls.

At the Center, Takayama dormed in Hale M!noa with 500 EWCstudents from Asia, the Pacific Islands and the United States. “We werelike one family living together,” he remembers, almost a half century later.“I believe that my experience, knowledge and skills acquired at the Centerhelped me to achieve my goal and carry out my profession effectively withconfidence.”

Takayama returned to Okinawa and a rewarding career as anadministrator at the University of the Ryukyus, then entered broadcasting— including as a manager at the NHK Okinawa Broadcasting Station —before moving into public service as executive director in the governor’soffice and chief of staff for the government of Okinawa prefecture. From1997 until he retired in 2001, he served as deputy mayor of Naha City.

Throughout his career, Takayama engaged in promoting and supportingexchange programs for foreign students, visitors and overseas organizations,influenced by his East-West Center experience. In retirement, he devoteshis time to strengthening exchange relationships between Okinawa andHawai‘i, and the network of Okinawan immigrants in communitiesworldwide. For the past 12 years, he’s led the EWCA Okinawa Chapter,encouraging students to apply for the Obuchi Scholarship program at theEast-West Center.

He maintains broadcasting ties, coordinating a radio program thatfeatures prominent guests addressing current issues and the future ofOkinawa. And in his leisure time, he takes great pleasure in playing the sanshinn, an Okinawan three-string musical instrument, and — in a nod to hisEWC years in Hawai‘i — the ‘ukulele. !

Ch!k!TakayamaStrengthening Hawai‘i-Okinawa Ties

Ch!k! TakayamaOkinawa1962, M.A.


Khaleda Rashid doesn’t justteach her students to buildbeautiful structures, shechallenges them to design

livable housing and communities for low-incomefamilies in urban areas. She brings in speakersfrom the public and private sectors to sharedifferent views of problems and solutions. Thenstudents engage in interactive discussions thatstretch their minds.

Khaleda RashidA Blueprint for Livable Housing

Khaleda RashidBangladesh1977, M.A.

Perhaps this is why her students don’tforget her. Rashid encourages students toconsider the social, cultural andeconomic dimensions of housingand community facilities.Years after completing theirdegrees at BangladeshUniversity of Engineering andTechnology (BUET), withflourishing careers abroad, they’re still in touch.When Rashid traveled to Australia for aconference a few years ago, former studentsarranged for a reunion with more than a dozenBangladeshi architects.

Trained as an architect, Rashid earned amaster’s degree in urban and regional planning atthe East-West Center in 1979. She worked for asmall architectural firm in Hawai‘i while herhusband completed his EWC studies, thenreturned to Dhaka in 1981 to join the faculty atBUET. Eventually Rashid was appointed chair ofthe Department of Architecture and in 1999 thefirst woman dean of a university in Bangladesh.

With a colleague, Rashid led a 12-year effort,the Gender Equality Policy Group, to increase theenrollment of women students in technical fieldsat BUET. The number of women enrolled at theuniversity rose from less than 3 percent in 1992 tomore than 24 percent in 1994. The group alsosubmitted an action plan to remove barriers to theemployment of women technical professionals.And she’s adviser to the recently establishedWomen Architects, Engineers and PlannersAssociation.

As honorary adviser of Bibi Khadeja KalyanSangstha, a non-profit social welfare organization,Rashid advocates for low-cost solutions, such assanitation measures, to improve living conditionsat squatter settlements in urban areas where thepoor can’t afford to own land.

Everything leads back to the classroom.“I love teaching,” Rashid says. “I can discuss ideasfor hours, talk about the social problems we havein our society, about values, lifestyles — and othercountries as well. If you don’t know the causeof a problem,” she adds, “how can you find theremedy?” !


Dance, Carl Wolz believed, couldbring people together. Throughthe course of his life as performer,choreographer, teacher, scholar,

administrator and mentor, he did just that, creatingwhat he affectionately called his “global dancefamily.”

Trained at Juilliard in Western traditions ofdance, he discovered the dances of Japan first,then the rest of Asia, as a graduate student at theEast-West Center in the early 1960s. It didn’t takelong before he embraced the world of dance.

“He possessed the soul and sensitivity of anartist, the mood and curiosity of an educator and

Carl WolzCreating a Global Dance Community (1932–2002)

Carl WolzUnited States1962, M.A.


the prodigious energy of youth,” a colleague notedin a tribute upon his death in 2002. Over the 70years of his life, he won numerous internationalawards in an illustrious career.

Wolz was also a fine dancer — ever theinnovator. He choreographed works representingastronauts in space and even danced on crutches.His experiences at the Center formed an unshakablebelief in the unifying power of dance and a deepappreciation for indigenous dance forms,including the hula, which experienced arenaissance in Hawai‘i in the 1970s.

Wolz spent 20 years on the faculty of theUniversity of Hawai‘i, founding its dance programbefore leaving to become dean of dance at theHong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts.He went on to teach in Tokyo and in 1988achieved his vision of forming a World DanceAlliance.

He served as executive director of theassociation that created a community of artists —not always the most collaborative individuals —to share, learn and respect each other’s traditionsregionally and globally. A gentleman, he easilybefriended anyone he met. His hope of “celebratingthe variety, the depth and the beauty of humandifference through the art of dance” was anextension of his own experiences as a youngdance student at the East-West Center. !

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Angela Kay Kepler hascamped on uninhabitedcoral atolls, in tropicalforests and on icy tundra.

She’s spent difficult months at sea on large andsmall vessels — even a former Russian spy ship.All for the purpose of ecological and conservationresearch, which has taken her to wilderness areasand national parks in some 90 countries — fromthe Hawaiian Islands to Alaska and the Russian FarEast, the Caribbean and the remotest islands andatolls in the Pacific, to the Chilean Fiords andAntarctica.

Birdwatcher.Backpacker. Lecturer.Award-winningphotographer and author.Conservationist. TheNew Zealander whonow lives on Maui says,“I still call myself ‘anold-fashioned naturalist’— a dying species in thisage of specialization!”

But her modesty belies her impressiveachievements. Kepler has discovered orco-discovered several new species of birds, plantsand lizards. The most notable is a new species ofPuerto Rican bird named after her, the ElfinWoods Warbler (Dendroica angelae) that lives inhigh-elevation cloud forest. It was the first newspecies discovered in the West Indies in 100 years.On Maui, she came upon a tiny, flightless fossil,excavated from a lava tube. The extinct Hawaiianbird was named Porzana keplerorum in her honor.

Angela Kay KeplerConservationist and ‘Old-Fashioned Naturalist’


Angela Kay KeplerNew Zealand1964, M.A.

Kepler’s remarkable career grew out of achildhood interest in butterflies and beetles shecollected in New Zealand. This developed into aquest for knowledge relating to plants and wildlife.“A passion that consumes me even today,” Keplersays.

She considers her EWC experience “a turningpoint in my young life. The East-West Centeropened up opportunities to interact with people,not only from all over the world,” she says, “butwith standing in the community and at higherlevels than me in the university system.”

The author of 18 books, Kepler is recognizedas the world’s authority in three areas: a WestIndian family of birds called Todidae (thesefour-inch long birds resemble a cross betweena hummingbird and small kingfisher); Hawaiianand Pacific traditional bananas and plantains;and Pacific Island ecology and conservation ofuninhabited atoll ecosystems and seabird colonies.

For more than 30 years she’s campaigned forthe preservation of prime natural areas. Kepler’s“special loves” are the Line and Phoenix Islands,especially Millennium Island, formerly CarolineAtoll. With “a crystalline lagoon and teemingseabird colonies,” she describes it as “one of thetwo or three most near-pristine atolls in theworld.” In 2000, Kepler was declared an honorarycitizen of Kiribati for her conservation work inthe Pacific Island nation. At the same time a“long-awaited dream” took shape when thepresident of Kiribati announced plans forMillennium Island to become a national parkand UNESCO World Heritage Site. !

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Two dozen middle schooland high school studentsfrom villages in NorthSumatra bond at a camp

where they learn peer-counseling skills. These youthcounselors are part of a prevention effort to reduceincidents of child-trafficking and violence against children.

This is just one of the programs of the Educationand Information Center for Child Rights Indonesia(KKSP Foundation) based in Medan, Sumatra’s capital,where Muhammad Jailani works as a human rightstrainer. Peer group training is only one of his manyresponsibilities. He trains law enforcement officials onprevention and handling of cases of child traffickingfollowing basic human rights standards. He advisesjournalists on guidelines for news coverage involvingchild victims. With his assistance, street children formand maintain a community in which they expressthemselves through music.

KKSP provides protection, education and medicalservices for children in Northern Sumatra and training

to ensure child rights in an area scarredby poverty and years of strife. The

NGO was constructive in therecovery in Aceh province afterthe devastation of the 2004

tsunami, building nearly 800houses for families who’d lost

their homes. And it operatesthree children’s centers that

facilitate 700 youngsters everymonth, two mobile libraries

that reach 600 childrenin remote areas,

three kindergartens, two health clinics for womenand children, and a community radio station withprogramming on women and children’s rightsmanaged by young adults.

Jailani’s role as a leader in child rights extendsbeyond Indonesia. He was re-elected chairman of theSteering Committee for the Southeast Asia Region’sCoalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers at ameeting in Bangkok in September 2009. And heis involved in organizing a conference on Islam,childhood and building a culture of peace inSoutheast Asia, to be held in the Philippines.

At the East-West Center, he earned a master’sdegree in sociology, examining the subculture ofstreet children in Medan. His studies influenced hisbelief that to solve problems, you must involveeveryone, including children, and treat them withrespect. “The East-West Center taught me to makesomething impossible to be possible,” he says. “Thereis no difficulty to do something if we focus on ourobjective and work as a team.” !

Muhammad JailaniEnsuring Child Rights in Southeast Asia

Muhammad JailaniIndonesia2003, M.A.

“The East-West

Center opened

the gateway to

my deeper

understanding of

the Pacific. As a

conservationist

and old-fashioned

naturalist, I sought

opportunities to

use and expand my

increasing breadth

of knowledge to

protect wildlife

and terrestrial

ecosystems.”


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After an earthquake devastatednorthern Pakistan in 2005,Arjumand Faisel visited anorphanage in Islamabad that

was a refuge for 450 young children. They wereprovided housing, education and medical care. Butwhen the children ran up to greet the physician andpublic health specialist as he entered the orphanage,he realized what they missed most was affection.

Faisel recruited EWCA chapter members to“hug a child.” Newspapers covered their day at theorphanage, saluting the chapter for its communityservice project. EWCA alumni played cricket withthe children, sang folk songs, painted henna on thehands of girls — and hugged the youngsters.

Chapter leader Faisel expanded outreach toother orphanages. The chapter also organizedseminars on earthquake safety for structuralengineers and geologists. These are just a sampleof the activities on his plate, in addition to hisongoing work in public health.

Faisel was in Honolulu in 2008 for the openingof “Unseen Visions,” an exhibition of contemporaryPakistani art in the East-West Center Gallery inBurns Hall. During his visit, he gave several talks,speaking with quiet passion about the work of 12Pakistani artists, including his daughter, a promisingartist whose work has been shown in London andNew York City.

Arjumand FaiselCommitted to a Pakistan You Don’t See on CNN

Arjumand FaiselPakistan1987, MPH

“I love the title ‘Unseen Visions,’” he saidwhile in Honolulu, “because these really are unseenvisions of Pakistan. I see there are two Pakistans:a CNN Pakistan and a Pakistan in which I live.Most of the United States has only seen the CNNPakistan. But actually life goes on in Pakistan theway it does anywhere else in the world. Thosethings are never shown. Art represents this life.”

The exhibition was also an opportunity toreturn to the East-West Center, where Faisel spent1987 and 1988 working toward a master’s degree inpublic health, in maternal and child health andhealth education.

After he returned to Pakistan, he managed a$62 million, four-year project dealing with childsurvival. He then joined the World HealthOrganization in Egypt before returning to Pakistanto continue public health work for the World Bank,Asian Development Bank, London School of Hygiene& Tropical Medicine and U.S. organizations.In 2002, he formed his own consultancy firm totackle public health projects on a national level.

And he’s maintained a lifelong interest in thearts. At one time he provided financial support forlow-income art students who couldn’t affordsupplies. As a result of Promote Art in Pakistan,which he founded in 1999, the nation boasts agrowing art community as evident in “UnseenVisions.” !

“When I returned to Pakistan I felt myperspectives were very different and far

broader than my colleagues who hadbeen selected to go abroad and study in

other U.S. universities. The East-WestCenter had affected my vision — the way

I thought about the world, culture andunderstanding human beings.”


Shankar P. Sharma’s day nolonger begins in Kathmandu,against the striking backdropof the highest mountains in the

world. Recently appointed his nation’s ambassador tothe United States, he’s adapting to diplomatic life in thecorridors of Washington, D.C.

It’s the latest distinction for the internationaleconomist, who earned his Ph.D. in economics at theUniversity of Hawai‘i while an EWC grantee.

Former vice chairman of the Planning Commissionin Nepal, Sharma most recently has been a consultant tothe Constitutional Assembly, drafting a new constitutionfor the South Asian nation. He also served as senioreconomic adviser to Nepal’s Ministry of Finance.

On the regional and global level, he has beeninvolved in international organizations addressingenergy issues, challenges facing Asia’s least developedcountries and, for UNESCAP, the implications of theglobal financial crisis on fiscal policy in the Asia Pacificregion. Add to this hands-on experience in the field as aconsultant in Laos, Bhutan and India.

So it comes as no surprise that Sharma iscomfortable with donor governments, developmentagencies, NGOs and the corporate sector, all of whichhe’s interacted with in discussions of foreign aid, peace-building and development in Nepal.

His academic credentials are also impressive.In Singapore, he was senior economist in the Instituteof Southeast Asian Studies. The ambassador also wasa professor of economics at Tribhuvan University inNepal. And he returned to the East-West Center in1983-86 as a research fellow in the Resource SystemsInstitute. !

Shankar P. SharmaRepresenting Nepal in Washington

Shankar SharmaNepal1979, Ph.D.

“Attachment with the East-WestCenter enhanced my understandingof the multicultural dimension of theAsia Pacific region and helped meto expose myself to a wide range ofacademic and social activities,broaden my vision aboutnational and globalchallenges and developmy leadership quality.”

“The experience of living in thedorm of the East-West Center,with various students from all overAsia and the United States,provided me with tolerance andunderstanding of different culturesneeded in my work both at thenational and international level.”

Throughout a distinguishedcareer that has been amarriage of science andpublic service, Didin

Sastrapradja has provided valued leadership andadvice with implications beyond the Asia Pacificregion.

Didin SastrapradjaValued Leader in Science and Public Service

Didin SastrapradjaIndonesia1961, Ph.D.

After receiving a Ph.D. in botany while at theEast-West Center, Sastrapradja returned to Indonesiato serve as director of the Bogor Botanical Garden,world famous for research and conservation. Heencouraged exploration into the use of Indonesianplants for medicinal and agricultural purposes, andto protect rare and endangered species.

His achievements brought a request torehabilitate the Homma Botany Garden, “oneof the oldest and most beautiful landmarks inthe Mediterranean region,” which had sufferedextensive damage during the war in Algeria inthe 1960s. These efforts and his reputation as aproponent of biological diversity soon broughtappointments of global scope, with suchinstitutions as UNESCO and the United NationsEnvironment Programme.

Sastrapradja also served his country, asDeputy Minister of Development of Scienceand Technology in the Ministry of Researchand Technology, before being elected a memberof Parliament.

Most recently he was honored for his nationaland international contributions to science. “Thereare still many unnamed plants in Indonesia,” hetold The Jakarta Post, at the awards ceremony in2009. “These plants could provide ingredients formedicines, food sources, ornamental plants andmany other purposes.” Sastrapradja also believesthat if Indonesia invested in research intobotanical science, the nation would be able toproduce ample food for its people.

Within the East-West Center community,Sastrapradja is beloved for his lifelong dedicationto the Center’s mission and alumni, includingmany years leading the EWCA Executive Boardand guiding the Indonesian Alumni Chapter.Respected as a gentle man with a gift forpersuasion, his legacy is the “Didin Principle,”a practice the EWCA Executive Board continuesto follow, in which decision-making is byconsensus rather than confrontation. !

56 | E A S T- W E S T C E N T E R

Charles E. Morrison, PresidentKaren Knudsen, Director, Office of External AffairsGordon Ring, Alumni Officer

Compiled and edited by Susan Yim | Designed by Kennedy & Preiss Design

Produced in 2010 in commemoration of the East-West Center's 50th anniversary

The East-West Center promotes better relations andunderstanding among the people and nations of theUnited States, Asia and the Pacific through cooperativestudy, research and dialogue. Established by the U.S.Congress in 1960, the Center serves as a resource forinformation and analysis on critical issues of commonconcern, bringing people together to exchange views,build expertise and develop policy options.

Officially known as the Center for Cultural andTechnical Interchange between East and West, the Centeris a U.S.-based institution for public diplomacy with inter-national governance, staffing, students and participants.

The Center is an independent, public, nonprofitorganization with funding from the U.S. government, andadditional support provided by private agencies, individuals,foundations, corporations and governments in the region.

The Center’s 21-acre Honolulu campus, adjacent tothe University of Hawai‘i at M"noa, is located midwaybetween Asia and the U.S. mainland and features research,residential and international conference facilities. TheCenter’s Washington, D.C., office focuses on preparing theUnited States for an era of growing Asia Pacific prominence.

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1601 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96848-1601Tel: 808.944.7111 | Fax: [email protected]

PHOTO: LINDA KAY QUINTANA

East-West Center: Fifty Years, Fifty Stories · Ratu Sir Kamisese K.T.Mara ... Kitty Pilgrim | 48 ... Women and men of high promise,East-West Center alumni have gone on to become

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