Franklin Fellows meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in October. The Secretary heard about the contributions of Fellows, including service in Iraq. Pictured from left to right are: (back row) Senior Advisor for Fellows Bill Pope, Franklin Fellows Program Intern Heather Zurek, Fellows Lorraine Hawley, Susan D. Loftis, Kim Tingley, Dr. Jeffrey Stacey, Timothy Ford, Dr. James Small, Karen Walker (front row) Fellows Steven Koltai, Dr. James Girard, Lisa Gambone, Secretary Clinton, Fellows Dr. Nisha Garg, Frederick Marrazzo, and Dr. R. Quinn Mecham.

Just returned from several months in Iraq, Franklin Fellow Dr. Karim Altaii (James Madison University) led a seminar on Iraqi higher education with officers from various State Department offices. While in Iraq, Dr. Altaii had met with Iraqi university professors about forming partnerships with faculty members at U.S. universities. Iraqi academics told Altaii about their strong desire to restore high academic standards at Iraq’s universities. To advance that goal, Dr. Altaii advocates partnerships between some of Iraq’s 28,000 professors and the 8-12,000 professors who left Iraq and now live in the diaspora. The US Government's growing Fulbright program in Iraq will extend Dr. Altaii's inter-faculty contacts with additional opportunities for Iraqi academics to re-connect with the wider academic world.

Franklin Fellow David Carbajal (USUN/ECOSOC) has been representing the United States Mission at the Second (Economic and Financial) Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. Carbajal advised the Economic Committee to increase aid to the poorest nations of the world and reported that the United States is committed to improving how it assists developing countries while also increasing its engagement with them.

Carbajal also reported that the U.S. global health initiative will grant $63 billion to fight global health threats, like HIV/AIDS and malaria in developing countries. Carbajal has also been serving as the USUN's lead negotiator on various issues, such as the "International Financial System" and on "Development and External Debt and Development: towards a durable solution to the debt problems of developing countries."