WACT Board Member and President of the Chinese Reconciliation Park Foundation, Theresa Pan Hosley, presided over this year’s successful Moon Festival on September 21 at the Chinese Reconciliation Park.

Mike Fowler presented at a roundtable on trade policy at the World Trade Center Seattle back on July 17. Mike talked about supply channels and policy objectives. Read more here.

WACT Board Member Hon. G. Helen Whitener has been chosen for the Justice Charles Z. Smith Excellence in Diversity Award in the 2019 APEX Awards through the Washington State Bar Association.

You can read more about Judge Whitener's work that led to this award here.

Turan Kayaoglu, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, received the Distinguished Community Engagement Award.  “Dr. Turan Kayaoglu has been working locally and internationally to improve knowledge about Islam and the Muslin community.  Locally he travels statewide speaking about Islam as part of Humanities Washington.” 

Read more here.

On June 1 Theresa Pan Hosley, WACT board member and president of the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation (CRPF), hosted the CRPF annual dinner and auction, “Celebration of Unity.”  This gala event was attended by WACT board members Marcia Garrett, Bill Evans, Erling Kuester, Michael Fowler and Mariam Anderson.  Bill Evans and Erling Kuester also sit on the CRPF Board of Directors.

On May 30, board member Michael Fowler, who is the Senior Trade Consultant at the World Trade Center Tacoma, hosted a workshop sharing his thoughts on some of the unexpected results from tariffs, led a discussion on likely trade-negotiation outcomes and offered insights on export opportunities for which the prospects will grow stronger regardless of US-China trade negotiation outcomes.  The workshop also featured Christine Kelley, a Commercial Service Officer with the US & Foreign Commercial Service currently serving at the US Export Assistance Center in Seattle.  Christine shared lessons learned during her posting in China, as well as information on free and low-cost export promotion services now available through federal government.

In December, 2018, board member Syed Jamal, Founder & CEO of Branta, hosted a delegation from the City of Tacoma in India to meet with entrepreneurs, company executives, and government authorities to strengthen the India-US relationship through a variety of exchanges, conversations, and public meetings.  Two members of the delegation were WACT board members—Debbie Bingham and Michael Fowler.

Like many Muslims, Turan Kayaoglu grew up with anti-Semitic attitudes. But American Muslims, he writes, are well positioned to combat anti-Semitism in their communities.

Read more here.

World Affairs Council Tacoma board member Dr. Lin Zhou will sign her two-year employment contract as president of Bates Technical College. You can read more about this event here.

Robert Gates, U.S. secretary of defense under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will speak at University of Puget Sound on April 25 at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $20.

You can learn more and register here. Don't miss out!