Fulbright Forum - Newsletter of the Fulbright Academy - 2008 Election Issue

“Change” was a keyword in the US Presidential campaign, but change was not on the agenda for the four Fulbright scholars serving in Congress.  The four Fulbrighters in the 110th Congress were all re-elected, representing districts in the states of Arizona, Iowa, Maryland, and Oklahoma.
 
When the 111th U.S. Congress convenes its first session in January 2009, at least four Fulbright alumni will be serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. (Some new members of Congress may be Fulbrighters, but FAST does yet have that information.)

Representative Tom Cole (R), a Fulbrighter to the University of London in 1977, was re-elected to a fourth term representing south-central Oklahoma’s fourth congressional district. He has been a member on the House Armed Services Committee and serves as a member of the Republican leadership, holding the position of Deputy Whip (lining up the votes needed to pass the legislative agenda of President Bush and the House Republican Conference). He was a founding partner and past president of CHS & Associates, a nationally recognized consulting and survey research firm based in Oklahoma City. Tom Cole is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation, the only Native American serving in Congress.  (http://www.cole.house.gov/).

Representative John Sarbanes (D) from Towson, Maryland was re-elected to the House as a representative of Maryland’s third congressional district, which covers Annapolis and parts of Baltimore. He graduated from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton in 1984. Before going to Harvard Law School, he spent a year studing law and politics in Greece on a Fulbright Scholarship.  Much of his pre-congressional career was spent at a law firm, Venable, where he represented non-profit hospitals and senior living providers in their mission to deliver high quality care to the people of Maryland. (http://sarbanes.house.gov/)

Representative David W. Loebsack (D) was re-elected to represent southern Iowa’s 2nd congressional district. He and his wife both have education backgrounds. He was a Professor of Politics at Cornell College in Iowa prior to his election to Congress in 2007, and his wife taught second grade for 28 years. During his academic career, Loebsack participated in Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminars in Mexico in 1983 and in Brazil in 1987.    http://loebsack.house.gov

Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D) was reelected by the citizens of south-eastern Arizona’s eighth congressional district. She had a Fulbright Scholarship to study for a year in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1993 and then earned a Master’s Degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University. Prior to going to Washington, she represented her hometown of Tucson in the Arizona Legislature from 2000-2005. Before entering politics, she served as president of El Campo Tire, a small family-owned business. On May 31, 2008, Giffords became the first sitting member of the U.S. Congress to have a spouse in outer space when her husband began a fourteen day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. http://giffords.house.gov/

Other Elected & Appointed Leaders

If you are aware of current or former leaders in your city, state/province or country who were Fulbright Scholars, please send us his/her name and title. We would like to get them involved in our network. For example, the former Minister of Environment for El Salvador, Ana Maria Majano, was a speaker at our Future of Cities Conference in Singapore two weeks ago. We are also looking for leaders in the business world.

Thank you - Eric Howard, Executive Director

LINKS - FAST PROGRAMS & INFORMATION

• Video: FAST is a Blast !!  (filmed at 2007 Conference)
• Call for Papers - Innovation & Econonic Development in Small Countries
• Institutional Members List
• Director's Circle - key donors