Speakers and Presenters

Ms. Bellamy is a world renowned champion of children's rights and proponent of international development. Throughout her career she has challenged countries to invest in child healthcare, safety, and education as a means for promoting security and stability. Ms. Bellamy is currently the director of World Learning. This organization works in over 75 countries to promote international and intercultural understanding while fostering global citizenship through education, training, exchange, and development activities.

Ms. Bellamy is also well regarded for her productive tenure at the helm of UNICEF. During her ten years, Ms. Bellamy focused the organization on five major priorities:

Immunizing every child
Getting all boys and girls into school, and getting all schools to offer quality basic education
Reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS and its impact on young people
Fighting to protect children from violence and exploitation
Introducing early childhood education programs in every country

"Under Ms. Bellamy's leadership, UNICEF became a champion of global investment in children, arguing that efforts to reduce poverty and build a more secure world can only be successful if they ensure that children have an opportunity to grow to adulthood in health, peace, and dignity. She challenged leaders from all walks of life to recognize their moral, social, and economic responsibility to invest in children and to shift national resources accordingly."

Prior to joining UNICEF, Ms. Bellamy was the Director of Peace Corps. She also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala in the 1960s and was the first former Peace Corps Volunteer to head the agency. Ms. Bellamy has also worked at Bear, Stearns & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Cravath, Swaine, & Moore. She spent thirteen years as an elected public official including five years in the New York State Senate.

Professor Harris' research centers on agricultural policy, rural development, and sustainable development. She worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C. and is currently the Academic Director at the Patel Center for Global Solutions.

Professor Harris will be speaking about the current global food crisis. At home, and especially abroad, families are suffering from record-high prices on the most basic foods. 2008 was marked by the highest rise in food prices in the US since 1990, which, while notable to the general population, has meant painful adjustments for the poorest of the poor. Worse off, however, are people in developing countries, where up to 80% of families' money is spent on food items. For these people, the spike in food prices has been devastating. Indeed, the head of the UN World Food Program called the current crisis a "silent tsunami that respects no borders" and is threating the lives of over 100 million people worldwide. This presentation will discuss the myriad causes of the world food crisis, who it is impacting the most, and possible ways to reverse it.

Professor Goswami is the Director of the Solar Energy and Conversion Laboratory at the University of Florida. His lab explores and develops methods of creating energy from renewable resources. His research is paving the way for making green technologies cheap and affordable for developing countries. One project of his lab includes work on a solar powered system to desalinate water. Such a system could alleviate future shortages of drinking water on the planet.

Professor Goswami will discuss the tremendous advancements in renewable energy technologies that have occurred in the past 30 years, especially in solar radiation, wind and biomass, and the effect of the transition to a renewable energy future in the developing world.

Professor Mihelcic is the founder and Director of the Master's International Program in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. This program allows engineering students to provide engineering services to developing countries through the U.S. Peace Corps. Professor Mihelcic has worked extensively in the developing world on projects concerning clean water, health, and waste management.

Professor Mihelcic will discuss the increasing demands for water consumption and sustainable solutions for meeting these demands. Hundreds of millions of urban dwellers around the world have inadequate provisions of water, sanitation, and drainage. In fact, less than half of most urban dwellers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have water piped to their home and less than one third have quality sanitation. Meeting this immense global challenge of human needs within the context of the built environment is further complicated by issues of protecting precious water resources. This is because the majority of three billion people added this century will be in urban areas.

How can we meet increasing human demands for water? What do we need to consider when selecting and adapting new technologies and structures of government?

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) recently issued an indictment against the sitting head of state of Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir. Prof. Roach will address the political implications of this decision and what this indictment means for promoting peace and stability, both regionally and internationally. The topical issue is the reconciliation between peace and justice. What in other words, is the ICC's somewhat controversial role in facilitating this process of reconciliation? In addressing this question, Prof. Roach will provide a brief historical background of the ICC, discuss the political dimensions of Prosecutorial power, and compare the role of the Court in the Sudan to the other cases at the ICC, including Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic.

"Balancing Demands of Humans and Ecosystems for Water in the Face of Diminishing Global Resources and Climate Change"

The United Nations has recognized that the world is facing a water crisis, both in the quantity and quality of water for humans and ecosystems. In many parts of the world, water resources are diminishing rapidly in the face of increasing human populations and climate change. How can we plan for the future? In terms of managing water resources, it is critical to balance the needs of humans and ecosystems. Learn about cutting-edge ecological engineering and ecohydrological approaches that have been used to develop sound, sustainable management of water resources in the face of exponential demands from humans.