Greetings from CDDRL

Dear 2005 Fellows:

This webpage is a way by which you will be able to continue to benefit from the SSFDD program experience! The purpose of the network is to help you to stay connected with each other and with us here at Stanford. This newsletter will also provide you with a forum to share and explore ideas across countries, cultures and professions. That is why we encourage you to provide us updates (including photos) on important milestones in your lives, whether it is a new job, a meaningful work project, a wedding, a new child etc. We would also like you to share news such as upcoming seminars or conferences, new publications, and career opportunities.

The newsletter is FOR YOU AND ABOUT YOU, so do take advantage of this opportunity to keep in touch!

We have heard already about some of the activities in which you are engaged, and which demonstrate your leadership. However, we’d love to hear more. The goal of CDDRL is to give the participants tools that will enable them to be even more successful when they return home and the program's success will be judged as much by what you achieve as alumni as it is by your participation in our classes and events at Stanford.

We are happy to report to you that the SSFDD program is thriving, thanks to our generous sponsors. In 2006, 30 finalists, representing 24 countries, were selected out of about 700 applicants. Among them, there are presidential advisers, head editors of main national newspapers, prominent journalists and human rights lawyers, academics and researchers designated by publications such as the New York Times as their countries’ “Bright Young Stars,”  and representatives of international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

In September 2005, Chip Blacker, Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, appointed Michael Mcfaul as the new Director of the CDDRL. Mike, a renowned specialist on the former Soviet Union, is currently also a Professor of Political Science at Stanford as well as the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, CDDRL's Associate Director for Research, and Senior Research Fellow published several papers and a new book on Russia- all this while attending 100001 events at her kids’ schools and taking care of the most recent member of her family, Kira.

Larry Diamond's new book on Iraq is now avalable in paperback. Avner Greif's also published an acclaimed book on the history of economic institutions in 2006. Alex Thier has left CDDRL for the United States Institute of Peace.

Last February, Alice Kada joined us as the Center Administrator. Ganka’s son, Daniel, was born in March, 2006. In April, Eric Yu joined us as program manager for the Democracy in
Taiwan program at CDDRL. Finally, Laura Cosovanu, a Romanian-born lawyer, graduate of Columbia Law School, joined CDDRL as the SSFDD program manager in June. 

We look forward to hearing from you. Please take a moment to send us your news at ssfddamin@stanford.edu!