From CoastGuardsNews.com

VADM Currier was born in Westbrook, Maine, and was commissioned from Officer Candidate School in 1976. He was designated a Naval Aviator in 1977. An alumnus of the University of Southern Maine, he held a Master’s in Business Administration from Embry-Riddle University. He was a 1996 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Air War College and held a Level III Acquisition Program Manager certification.

During his career, VADM Currier stood the watch at six Coast Guard Air Stations. He was designated an Aeronautical Engineer in 1982. Other assignments included Deputy Program Manager (Engineering) for the Coast Guard and Navy HH-60H/J joint helicopter acquisition at the Naval Air Systems Command, and Chief of SAR Operations & Director of Auxiliary for the Ninth Coast Guard District. VADM Currier served as Commanding Officer of Air Stations Detroit and Miami, then the world’s busiest air-sea search and rescue unit. Subsequently, he was assigned as Pacific Area Chief of Operations, then Area Chief of Staff.

Promoted to Flag rank in 2005, VADM Currier served as Assistant Commandant for Acquisition at Headquarters, then as Commander of the Thirteenth District in the Pacific Northwest. He assumed the duties of the Coast Guard’s Chief of Staff in 2009, later transitioning that position to the Service’s first Deputy Commandant for Mission Support. VADM Currier assumed duties as the 28th Vice Commandant in May 2012 until his retirement in May of 2014.

VADM Currier was a veteran aviator with over 6,000 flight hours in Coast Guard and Navy fixed and rotary-wing aircraft. He was the 23rd Ancient Albatross, the longest serving Coast Guard Aviator on active duty. His professional recognition includes the Harmon International Aviation Trophy, the Alaska Air Command SAR Pilot of the Year Award, American Helicopter Society, Fredrick L. Feinberg Award and the Naval Helicopter Association SAR Aircrew of the Year, all awarded for hazardous rescue missions.

VADM Currier is survived by his wife, the former Mary Jane Greenleaf of South Portland, Maine, and their two sons, Benjamin and Andrew.

From Fordham.edu

Karen J. Greenberg, a noted expert on national security, terrorism, and civil liberties, is Director of the Center on National Security. She is the author of The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days (Oxford University Press, 2009), which was selected as one of the best books of 2009 by The Washington Post and Slate.com.

Her newest book, Rogue Justice:The Making of the Security State (Crown, 2016), explores the War on Terror's impact on justice and law in America. She is co-editor with Joshua L. Dratel of The Enemy Combatant Papers: American Justice, the Courts, and the War on Terror (Cambridge University Press, 2008) and The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib (Cambridge University Press, 2005); editor of the books The Torture Debate in America (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and Al Qaeda Now (Cambridge University Press, 2005); and editor of the Terrorist Trial Report Card, 2001–2011.

Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, The National Interest, Mother Jones, TomDispatch.com,and on major news channels. She is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

From CircleofBlue.org

J. Carl Ganter is co-founder and director of Circle of Blue, the center for frontline reporting, research, and analysis on water resource issues and their relationship to food and energy in a changing climate. Ganter is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and photojournalist whose work has appeared in most major magazines, newspapers, and television and radio networks, including Time, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone. He earned his MSJ in investigative and magazine reporting at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism after graduating with honors from the University’s American Studies Program.

Carl is the past vice chairman of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Water Security, and served as a member of the Forum’s Global Future Council on the Environment and its New Vision for Agriculture and Water initiatives. He has presented or moderated sessions at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Aspen Ideas Festival, Techonomy, DLD, Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Aspen Environment Forum, World Water Week, Fung Global Institute, Concordia Summit, Impact Summit, International Water Summit, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and others. He is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Centennial Innovation Award.

From CPJ.org

Courtney C. Radsch, PhD, is the advocacy director at the Committee to Protect Journalists and the author of Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt: Digital Dissidence and Political Change. As a veteran journalist, researcher, and free expression advocate she writes and speaks frequently about the intersection of media, technology, and human rights. Follow her on Twitter @courtneyr.

From WSJ.com

Lingling Wei is a senior China correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and co-author of “Superpower Showdown.” She covers China's political economy, focusing on Beijing's policy-making process and its key decision makers. Born and raised in China, she has a M.A. in journalism from N.Y.U. and got her start covering U.S. real estate and finance. Follow her on Twitter: @Lingling_Wei

From WorldAffairsCouncils.org

Bill Clifford is President and CEO of the World Affairs Councils of America in Washington, DC, where he leads WACA's national office and represents its nonpartisan nonprofit network of more than 90 World Affairs Councils across the United States. In March 2017, he was appointed nonresident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Before joining WACA in September 2013, Bill spearheaded the revitalization and growth of WorldBoston, a WACA member Council known for innovative programming, access to leaders, and a tradition of advancing public learning about critical international issues. Previously, Bill served as Asia bureau chief for the pioneering multimedia venture CBS MarketWatch, where he launched and directed news bureaus in Japan and Hong Kong. He got his start In broadcast news with Asia Business News TV and was senior correspondent in Tokyo for CNBC Asia after its merger with ABN. Bill began his work in journalism reporting on international economics, finance, and politics for several newspapers.

In 2019, Bill was appointed as a member of the Korea Economic Institute of America's advisory council. Bill holds an M.A. from Johns Hopkins SAIS, a B.A. summa cum laude in international relations and French literature from Tufts University, and a C.E.P from Sciences Po in Paris.

From Office of The President, University of Miami

Julio Frenk is the president of the University of Miami since August of 2015. He also holds academic appointments as Professor of Public Health Sciences at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, as Professor of Health Sector Management and Policy at the Miami Business School, and as Professor of Sociology at the College of Arts and Sciences. 

Prior to joining the University of Miami, he served for nearly seven years as the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, a joint appointment with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Frenk was the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. There he pursued an ambitious agenda to reform the nation’s health system and introduced a program of comprehensive universal coverage, known as Seguro Popular, which expanded access to health care for more than 55 million previously uninsured persons. He was the founding director-general of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, one of the leading institutions of its kind in the developing world. He also served as executive director in charge of Evidence and Information for Policy at the World Health Organization and as senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other leadership positions. 

His scholarly production, which includes over 180 articles in academic journals, as well as many books and book chapters, has been cited over 23,000 times. In addition, he has written three best-selling novels for youngsters explaining the functions of the human body. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico, and El Colegio Nacional. Dr. Frenk holds a medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a master of public health and a joint Ph.D. in Medical Care Organization and in Sociology from the University of Michigan. He has received honorary degrees from ten universities.