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UPCOMING: Meredith Woodruff
UPCOMING: Meredith Woodruff
Date: January 2025
Location: JHS Campus
Background: Meredith Woodruff served in the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Directorate of Operations, living and working for more than twenty-five years in Central Eurasia, the Near East, Africa, and Europe. She retired from the CIA in 2007 as its most senior female officer in operations.
Past Guest Speakers
Past Guest Speakers
Nicole Molina
Nicole is a business intelligence analyst with a background in economics and mathematics from the University of Cambridge and the University of Oklahoma. Experienced in data visualization, statistical analysis, and operational management, she has led projects in AI governance and AR holographic display technology, specializing in product commercialization and strategic insight. She currently oversees revenue operations and grant project work at Holistic AI in London.
Jared Scism
Jared is the Director of the Centre for Global Competency and Global Learning and an Adjunct Instructor for the Department of Sociology, Gerontology and Substance Abuse Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma. Jared graduated from Oklahoma Christian in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and the University of Central Oklahoma with a Master’s in Adult Education in 2020. Jared is also proud to be a certified facilitator of the AFS Global Cultural Competency Certificate Program and an Intercultural Development Inventory Qualified Administrator.
Anita Joshi
Anita is the Director of Policy Research for the Hindu American Foundation in Washington DC. Anita graduated from Jenks HS (2011) and went on to receive her Bachelors in International Economics from Georgetown University (2015) as well as a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy (2019)
Meredith Woodruff
Meredith served in the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Directorate of Operations, living and working for more than twenty-five years in Central Eurasia, the Near East, Africa, and Europe. She retired from the CIA in 2007 as its most senior female officer in operations.
Jolie Abdo
Jenks High School ISP Alumni (2022)
Jolie is a Sophomore at American University as a International Studies major with a focus on Foreign Policy and Peace & Conflict Resolution.
Dr. Howard Sanborn
Howard Sanborn is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at Oklahoma State University; he joined the OSU faculty in 2022. His research has focused on the support for, and development of, democracy around the world, with a specific focus on Asia.
Dr. Zach Morgan
Dr. Morgan is a modern Latin American historian and work on race, abolition, and slavery focusing primarily on Brazil in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as well as the African diaspora throughout the Americas.
Audrey Guymon and Emma Zemanek
Jenks High School ISP Alumni (2021)
Audrey and Emma are both currently studying abroad in Sheffield, England
Muneeb Ata
Jenks High School Alumni (2016)
Bachelors in Letters and Bachelors in Biology: Oklahoma University (2020)
George Kaiser Family Foundation - Program Officer and Executive Director of Campus Tulsa
Hudson Harder
Jenks High School Alumni (2018)
Bachelors in International Studies with Minors in History and Latin American Studies: Oklahoma University (2022)
Currently pursuing a BFA in Cinema, TV, and Digital Production at Oral Roberts Univ.
Mary Jackson
Jenks High School Alumni (2018)
Working on her Bachelor's degree from Utah Valley University in Animation and Game Development
Completed missionary work in Kyiv, Ukraine
Rachel Games
JHS English Language Arts educator
Masters Degree from the University of Edinburgh
Sarah Cameron
Jenks High School Alumni (2017)
Bachelors in Economics from Yale College (2021)
Corporate Banking Coverage Analyst - Financial Institutions Group Deutsche Bank
Dr. Jodi Eastberg
Dean of Professional and Graduate Studies at Alverno College in Milwaukee, WI as well as the ETS Chief Reader for the AP World History Exam. Her academic areas of expertise include World history, World history pedagogy, British trade and imperial history, Chinese history, and Teaching and learning with technology.
Dim Mang
Jenks High School Alumni (2016)
University of Michigan (2020)
Full time Organizer with Rising Voices
Dr. Craig Benjamin
Associate Professor of History in the Frederik Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University Associate Professor of History in the Frederik Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University.
Heather Ketchem
Jenks High School Alumni (2014)
Second year PhD student in Philosophy and Theology. She has taken part in archaeological digs in various parts of the world.
Alice Hober
German High School Exchange Student to Oklahoma in the 2007-08 school year. She and her husband Benjamin have also been hosts for American Exchange Students.
Luciano and Terisa Cunha
Luciano was born in Brazil and attended college in the United States where he met his wife Terisa. He is now CEO of a business located in the Netherlands where he and Terisa live with their two children.
Tulsa Committee on Foreign Relations Speakers
Tulsa Committee on Foreign Relations Speakers
Dr. Benjamin Peters
With extensive experience in both Ukraine and Russia, Benjamin Peters is a media scholar often focused on the surprising lessons of the Soviet century. The author and editor of several award-winning books and volumes, he is the Hazel Rogers Associate Professor and Chair at the University of Tulsa as well as affiliated fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.
Dr. Morag M. Kersel
Morag M. Kersel is associate professor of anthropology at DePaul University in Chicago. In addition to the relationship between cultural heritage law, archaeological sites, and objects, she is interested in the public display and interpretation of artifacts in institutional spaces. She has published a number of articles and is the co-author (with Christina Luke) of U.S. Cultural Diplomacy and Archaeology: Soft Power, Hard Heritage (Routledge 2013).
Thom Shanker
Thom Shanker was named director of the Project for Media and National Security in June 2021, after a nearly quarter-century career with The New York Times, including 13 years as Pentagon correspondent covering the Department of Defense, overseas combat operations and national security policy. Most recently, he had served as Deputy Washington Editor for The Times, managing coverage of the military, diplomacy and veterans’ affairs. Mr. Shanker is co-author of “Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda,” published in August 2011 by Henry Holt & Co. The book became a New York Times best seller.
Jed Willard
Jed Willard is Director of Global Engagement at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation at Adams House, Harvard University. He has over 20 years of experience in communication, research, and public diplomacy with a recent track record in security and disinformation threat analysis, particularly in Scandinavia. Willard has consulted with a number of governments and other international actors, helping them to understand prevalent and emerging narratives – the drivers of public opinion and sentiment – and creating strategies and structures to effectively engage citizens around the globe. His current efforts focus on coping with information warfare and revitalizing faith in the post-Enlightenment tradition.
Dr. Randy Kluver
Randy Kluver is the Associate Provost and Dean of the OSU Global and the School of Global Studies, and holds the Don and Cathey Humphreys Chair in Global Studies at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Kluver has a long record of research on Asian politics, global media, globalization, and the political and geopolitical impact of information technologies and new media. His presentation focused on the the importance of Southeast Asia as a context for geopolitical influence between the US and China, but also look at the challenges faced by these nations and the potential they have to shape their own futures, as well as the future of the rest of the world.
Ali Wyne
Ali Wyne is a senior analyst with Eurasia Group’s Global Macro-Geopolitics practice, focusing on U.S.-China relations and great-power competition. A security fellow with the Truman National Security Project, he is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former David Rockefeller fellow with the Trilateral Commission. Ali also serves on Foreign Policy for America’s Board of Directors.
James M. Lindsey
James M. Lindsay is senior vice president, director of studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg chair at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where he oversees the work of the more than six dozen fellows in the David Rockefeller Studies Program as well as CFR’s eleven fellowship programs. He is a leading authority on the American foreign policymaking process and the domestic politics of American foreign policy.
Dr. Kori Schake
Dr. Schake is a senior fellow and the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. She has had a distinguished career in government, working at the US State Department, the US Department of Defense, and the National Security Council at the White House. She has also taught at Stanford, West Point, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, National Defense University, and the University of Maryland.
Meredith Woodruff
Meredith served in the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Directorate of Operations, living and working for more than twenty-five years in Central Eurasia, the Near East, Africa, and Europe. She retired from the CIA in 2007 as its most senior female officer in operations.
Dr. James Hollifield
Dr. James F. Hollifield is an authority on immigration, immigration policy, global migration, and assimilation into American society. He is Ora Nixon Arnold Chair in International Political Economy, Professor in the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Tower Center at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, as well as a member of the New York Council on Foreign Relations and a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, DC.
Dr. Chris White
Dr. Chris White is the Managing Director, Special Projects at Microsoft. He leads mission-oriented research and software development teams focusing on high risk problems. Dr. White has a background in EE, with a PhD in machine learning for speech and language from Johns Hopkins. He was a Fellow at Harvard for graph statistics and machine learning before spending time in the field.
Dr. Jami Fullerton
Dr. Jami Fullerton currently serves as the Director of Academic Programs in the School of Global Studies and Partnerships at Oklahoma State University, where she primarily oversees the inter-disciplinary MS degree in Global Studies. A full professor in the School of Media and Strategic Communication, she holds the Peggy Layman Welch Endowed Chair in Strategic Communication and has taught advertising management and media theory for 24 years.
Tom Shannon
Ambassador Shannon brings more than three decades of government service and diplomatic experience to his current practice as a senior advisor to the Washington law firm Arnold and Porter, where he provides strategic counsel to clients across a range of legislative, foreign policy, and national security issues.
Bruce Jones
Director and a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution; he also works with the Center for East Asia Policy Studies.
John Sipher
Retired in 2014 after 28 years of service in the CIA, member of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service and Chief of Station in Moscow. Co-founder of Spycraft Entertainment.
Ambassador Bill Taylor
American diplomat, government official, and former military officer. Former US Ambassador to the Ukraine (2006-2009 and 2019-January 2020).
Dr. David Shambaugh
Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs and Director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University.
Ambassador Todd Buchwald
Former U.S. Ambassador and Special Coordinator for Global Criminal Justice, also served with the U.S. Department of State.
Dr. Joshua Landis
Sandra Mackey Chair in Middle East Studies Professor, Middle Eastern History Director, Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies Director at University of Oklahoma.
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