Theme: Conflict Resolution in a Changing World
Kevin Levin, Author & Historian
Levin is a historian and educator based in Boston. Over the past few years he has worked extensively with educators and students across the country on how to understand the history and current debate surrounding Confederate monuments. He is the author of numerous articles and op-eds in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and Smithsonian Magazine. Levin is also the author and editor of three books, including Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth.
Dr. Deborah Lawrence, U.Va. Environmental Science Professor
Lawrence is a professor in environmental science at the University of Virginia. She served as the United States delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and co-authored a report on the solution toward the issue of global warming and deforestation in August 2019. She has spent the past 25 years in field-based research in Indonesia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Cameroon. Most recently, she has been using global climate models to explore the cumulative effect of tropical land-use decisions, exploring the climate impact of land allocation among food crops, biofuels, and forests across the globe.
Ricardo Zúñiga, Senior Diplomatic Fellow
Zúñiga is a Latin American Program senior diplomatic fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. He is on detail from the U.S. Department of State, where he is a senior foreign service officer. Before arriving at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Zúñiga worked as U.S. consul general in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 2015 - 2018, at the National Security Council from 2012 - 2015, and at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil from 2010 - 2012. Additionally, he also served in the State Department's Office of Cuban Affairs, the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and as the desk officer for Uganda and Tanzania. Born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Zúñiga came to the United State for university, graduating with a B.A. in foreign affairs and Latin American studies from the University of Virginia.