HONOLULU (Aug. 15, 2011) – The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, has awarded the East-West Center $1,087,762 over three years to continue and expand several training and exchange programs for journalists. The award will fund the continuation of the Center’s Pakistan-U.S. Journalists’ Exchange program, which was held for the first time in April this year, as well as funding participation by Pakistani journalists in the Center’s existing multinational Jefferson Fellowships and Senior Journalists Seminar programs.

Under the overall theme of “Deepening Democracy through Media in Pakistan,” the objectives of the East-West Center project are to promote free, fair and responsible media in Pakistan to help the country cope with its political and developmental challenges and to bridge the gaps in understanding between the United States and Pakistan.

HONOLULU (Jan. 10, 2012) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has appointed five new members to three-year terms on the East-West Center’s Board of Governors.

The new members are: UN Foundation CEO Kathy Bushkin Calvin, Clinton advisor and former USAID official Margaret Carpenter, Three Oaks Investments CEO and former White House National Economic Council senior counselor Ginger Lew, Mapleton Investments Chairman Marc Nathanson, and former U.S. Ambassador to Fiji and other Pacific island nations M. Osman Siddique.

Outgoing board members are Lori Forman, Theodore Lee, Patricia Saiki, S. Linn Williams, and Michael Young.

Funded by the U.S. State Dept., cross-border project
focuses on ‘peri-urban’ development issues

HONOLULU (Feb. 3, 2012) – East-West Center environmental researchers have launched a new cooperative project with specialists in India and Pakistan to collaborate on studying development issues in critical ‘peri-urban’ areas that lie between cities and the countryside.

 This project “offers a rare opportunity for Indian and Pakistani researchers to work together on a shared exploration of the challenges and impacts of an issue that deeply affects both nations,” said EWC research fellow Sumeet Saksena, the project’s principal investigator.

Journalists from Pacific Plate countries invited to apply by March 12

HONOLULU (March 5, 2012) – The Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership has awarded the East-West Center close to $100,000 to conduct a journalism seminar focusing on disaster management and resiliency. Journalists from Japan, the U.S., China and other countries bordering the seismically active Pacific tectonic plate are invited to apply by the March 12 deadline. Click here for more information.

Honolulu Attorney R. Brian Tsujimura chosen to head EWC’s Board of Governors

R. Brian TsujimuraHONOLULU (March 19, 2012) – Members of the East-West Center’s Board of Governors have elected Honolulu attorney and land developer R. Brian Tsujimura to serve as the board’s new chairman. At a meeting on March 16, the board named Tsujimura to succeed Puongpun Sananikone, who had served his maximum term as chairman and will remain on the board as chair of its Outreach Committee. The board also selected Honolulu attorney Richard Turbin as vice chair.

HONOLULU (May 30, 2012) – Internet information leader Google, telecom provider KT, auto manufacturer Hyundai, international relations insitution the Korea Foundation and the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre have joined the growing list of corporate and foundation sponsors of the East-West Center’s 2012 International Media Conference, scheduled for June 22-24 in Seoul, South Korea. The conference theme is “Networked News: How New Media is Shaping Stories in Asia and the Pacific.”

SEOUL (June 20, 2012) – Several hundred journalists and media experts from more than 100 news organizations in 25 countries will gather in Seoul, South Korea June 22-24 to discuss the latest information on the impact of new and social media on events and news coverage in Asia and the Pacific.

The conference on the theme of “Networked News: How New Media Is Shaping Stories in Asia and the Pacific” will be covered online at a special website, EastWestCenter.org/IMC 2012. Visit the site to see news reports and video of keynote addresses, real-time social media coverage, session summaries and more.

A number of the conference sessions are expected to be streamed live online. Twitter users can also follow live tweets from the conference through the hashtag: #NetNews.

Featured speakers and panelists include:

UHM SPAS Dean Edward Shultz to head EWC’s International Alumni Association Executive Board

HONOLULU (June 20, 2012) – Dr. Edward (Ned) Shultz, Dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies (SPAS) at University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) and Assistant Vice Chancellor for International Programs and Exchange, has been named the new president of the East-West Center’s Alumni Association Executive Board. On July 1, 2012, Shultz will succeed former UHM Asian Studies Program Graduate Chair, Dr. Ricardo Trimillos, who had served his term as president and will remain on the board as an ex-officio member.

HONOLULU (July 20, 2012) – The East-West Center and EWC Alumni Association will recognize six outstanding alumni and two alumni chapters for their exceptional accomplishments and service at the EWC/EWCA International Conference in Beijing, Sept. 1-3 at Peking University.

Recipients of the 2012 Distinguished Alumni Award are:

HONOLULU (Sept. 27, 2012) – – Nicholas Papp, a 13-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, has joined the East-West Center as Diplomat-in-Residence. He will be posted at the Center until June 2013 with a research focus on the current democratic reform movement in Burma.

HONOLULU (Oct. 11, 2012) -- The East-West Center has been awarded $173,000 in funding to study how key climate information spreads across different sectors and countries in the Pacific islands region.

With $148,000 in funding from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and $25,000 from the Department of Interior’s Pacific Islands Climate Science Center, researchers will use the upcoming release of a major Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment report as springboard for collecting data to analyze the flow of climate and fresh water information in Hawai‘i and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands.

By tracking information flows, key hubs and isolated groups using network analysis and statistical methods, the researchers plan to map out gaps in the communication and flow of climate information, allowing future projects to focus on areas with less active research and outreach.

HONOLULU (Oct. 24, 2012) – For two days this week, senior American and Australian policymakers, entrepreneurs, journalists and academics met at the East-West Center for the annual Honolulu session of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue.

A bipartisan private initiative, the dialogue brings together thinkers, business people, journalists and policymakers from both countries to engage in frank and thorough exploration of matters of mutual interest, especially issues on which Australia and the United States can provide critically needed leadership by working together and cooperatively with other partners.

(Click here to read an account of the meeting by participant Joanne Wallis of Australian National University.)

Two-week New Generation Seminar for rising young leaders from the U.S. and Asia Pacific will focus on middle class issues

HONOLULU (Oct. 25, 2012) -- Eleven young leaders from nine countries have arrived at the East-West Center to begin this year’s New Generation Seminar. The group will travel together to four different U.S. cities to meet with experts on the seminar theme: “The Making of the Middle Class: Successes of the Past, Challenges for the Future.”

After gathering at the EWC in Honolulu for briefings and discussions, the group will travel to Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC for field study. The program is supported by funding from the Freeman Foundation.

Participants in this year’s New Generation Seminar include:

HONOLULU (Nov. 2, 2012) – Eight journalists from various parts of Asia have begun the East-West Center’s special U.S. Presidential Election Reporting Seminar. On the 12-day tour immediately before, during and after the election, the journalists will visit Florida, Ohio and Washington, DC to gain inside perspectives on the American electoral system and the key issues involved in this year’s presidential contest.

HONOLULU (Nov. 13, 2012) -- The East-West Center has launched a new, updated website for its interactive Asia Matters for America initiative, which provides an online hub for viewers to explore user-friendly graphical data on the importance of Asia to specific U.S. areas, and vice versa.

The revamped AsiaMattersforAmerica.org site now consolidates the broad-based original Asia Matters project with several regional modules focusing more specifically on U.S. interactions with ASEAN, Australia, Japan and Korea. Modules focusing on China, India, and Taiwan are under development, with preliminary information included on this expanded website.

HONOLULU (Feb. 21, 2013) – In the coming year, the East-West Center is planning to conduct two of its signature media exchange programs in Burma (also called Myanmar). It is the first time the Center will be bringing its internationally recognized media seminars to the country, which has recently relaxed its former strict government censorship of the press.

In June, the Center will bring its distinguished Jefferson Fellowships program for Asia Pacific and U.S. journalists to Burma’s main city of Yangon as part of their study tour focusing on leadership changes in Asia Pacific. The journalists will have an opportunity to engage with Yangon's emerging media sector and ­– in another first for the fellowship –­ help provide professional training and regional perspectives to local journalists.

Innovative thinkers from diverse sectors will gather in Yangon on April 26 and 27, 2013, to develop and share scenarios about Myanmar’s economic development to the year 2020 at the first Myanmar Futures Exchange (MFE). Hosted by the Hawaii-based East-West Center, the program will lead participants through a series of risk analyses and scenario-building activities to determine driving forces and game changes that will shape Myanmar’s economic trajectory. The MFE will also feature a panel discussion with local entrepreneurs and prominent speakers, including influential Buddhist teacher, author and charitable works organizer Venerable Sitagu Dr. Nyanissara. 

HONOLULU (May 8, 2013) – The East-West Center has received a grant of $423,975 from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health as part of a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on “Realizing the Demographic Dividend for Africa.”

HONOLULU (May 22, 2013) -- The East-West Center has received $108,000 from the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy to study how local governance mechanisms can be enhanced to address natural disasters more effectively. The ICLD grant of $108,000 will fund a collaborative research project to be conducted with partner institutions in Bangladesh and China, with EWC Senior Fellow G. Shabbir Cheema as Principal Investigator.

HONOLULU (Sept. 19, 2013) – – Timothy Neely, a 26-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, has joined the East-West Center as Diplomat-in-Residence. He will be posted at the Center until June 2014.

Specializing in economic, environmental, science and technology issues, Neely’s overseas assignments have included Guangzhou, Kaohsiung, Beijing, Taipei, Manila, and New Delhi, while his domestic assignments have included textile negotiations with East Asia and Pacific nations, and U.S. representation to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organization.  Most recently, Tim headed the Environment, Science and Technology Affairs office at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.

HONOLULU (Oct. 31, 2013) -- The East-West Center has received  funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote public understanding and dialogue about the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia through the continuation of activities to monitor, analyze, and disseminate information about the tribunal proceedings.

HONOLULU (Feb 11, 2014) – The East-West Center has been awarded a three-year, $750,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study land-cover and land-use change in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Over the past half-century these countries have witnessed a major shift from subsistence agrarian economies to commercialized agriculture and, in the case of Thailand and Vietnam, industrialized societies. The project will study transitions in forests, boom crops and urban areas using remote sensing data sources and socioeconomic databases for the 2000-2012 period. The project’s aim is to enhance the conceptual underpinnings of land change science by integrating aspects of global markets, land use and political ecology to explicitly link land changes to local, national and international drivers.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) May 23 -The East-West Center has announced the appointment of three 2014 Japan Studies Fellows at the East-West Center in Washington. The fellowship provides residence of three or six months to scholars and analysts who wish to undertake policy-relevant research and writing on key issues of relevance to the U.S.-Japan partnership, including in the diplomatic, politico-security, economic, social and international fields.

Mary McCarthy is currently an Associate Professor at Drake University. She will conduct research on “Identity Through Historical Memory: The ‘Comfort Women’ Issue in U.S.-Japan Relations.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 9, 2014) -- The East-West Center has announced the appointment of four 2014 Asia Studies Fellows at the East-West Center in Washington. The fellowship provides residence of three or six months at the East-West Center in Washington to scholars and analysts who wish to undertake policy-relevant research and writing on key issues of relevance  to the U.S.-Asia relationship, including in the diplomatic, politico-security, economic, social and international fields. 

Mendee Jargalsaikhan is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia. He will conduct research on “The U.S.-Mongolia's Comprehensive Partnership: How to Maintain Momentum.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 16, 2014) -- Thirteen college students from the Pacific Islands and Timor Leste who are studying in Hawai‘i on East-West Center-administered scholarships are currently in Washington, D.C. on six-week internships designed to offer them professional experience and help expand their understanding of American society.

USSP and USTL participants meet with Ms. Julia Findlay of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.

HONOLULU (July 24, 2014) – The East-West Center has announced the names of EWC alumni, volunteers and a local alumni chapter that will be honored at the Center’s upcoming international alumni conference in Okinawa. The honorees are being recognized for their outstanding personal accomplishments and service toward the Center’s mission of helping to promote better relations and understanding among the peoples of Asia, the Pacific and the United States.

Distinguished Alumni Award

Fundraising Board Also Welcomes Three New Members 

HONOLULU (Aug.19, 2014) – The Board of Directors of the East-West Center Foundation ­­- the Center’s community fundraising arm ­– has selected members Keethe Koyanagi and Shelley Wilson as the board’s new co-chairs. Koyanagi is senior vice president of the Credit Administration Division at First Hawaiian Bank, and Wilson is president of president of Wilson Homecare. Their one-year term as co-chairs began on Aug. 1.

NAHA, OKINAWA  (Sept. 20, 2014) – At the East-West Center’s 2014 international alumni conference that concluded yesterday  in Naha, Okinawa, Center officials announced a new partnership with the Okinawa Prefecture Government that will continue an established scholarship program that allows several Okinawan students each year to pursue graduate degree or leadership program study at EWC and the University of Hawai‘i.

From left: Hidemasu Goya, Robert Nakasone, EWC Adjunct Project Specialist, and Sayaka Sakuma

HONOLULU (Sept. 26, 2014) – The East-West Center is pleased to announce that former Harvard Senior Associate Dean Paul Keenan has joined Center as Interim Director of Development. His part-time appointment is for an initial period of six months, beginning Sept. 23.

“Paul has proven relationship development skills, built over his 25 years of high-level experience in strategy development, marketing and organizational behavior and design,” said East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison. “We are greatly looking forward to his contributions to our strategic planning process and working with him to increase fundraising at the Center.”   

HONOLULU (Sept. 25, 2014) – – Nicholas Manring, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, has joined the East-West Center as Diplomat-in-Residence. He will be posted at the Center until June 2015.

Honolulu (Feb. 12, 2015) -- The East-West Center has been awarded a grant of  $267,186 from the Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership for a three-year dialogue and travel-exchange program focusing on community participation in long-term recovery after a major disaster. 

Participants from the cities of Kobe and Kesennuma in Japan, and New Orleans and Galveston in the United States, will share experiences, perspectives, and best practices for increasing citizen input on post-disaster policy and decision-making. 

International group of 15 accomplished journalists will travel together to China,
the Philippines, Singapore and Hawai‘i to study South China Sea conflicts

HONOLULU - (March 19, 2015) -- The East-West Center has announced the selection of 15 accomplished international journalists for its 2015 Jefferson Fellowships travel-study seminar. The journalists from 12 countries and territories will travel together in May to China, the Philippines, Singapore and Hawai‘i to study territorial conflicts, resource issues, environmental concerns and more in the South China Sea. Participants represent a range of top news organizations including the Associated Press, Washington Post, PBS NewsHour, Times of India, Straits Times, Kyodo News and others.

HONOLULU (May 5, 2015) -- The East-West Center has been awarded funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to continue to serve as the lead institution in the Pacific Regional Integrated Science and Assessment (RISA) program, which is designed to help island and coastal communities cope with the effects of climate change. This is the second full program award the Center has received from NOAA, and marks the program’s transition into a new phase.

The $4,099,785 NOAA grant will be shared over a five-year period by a variety of partners in the Pacific RISA program (see list below). The program was established in 2003 and is one of 11 regional RISA programs supported by NOAA across the U.S. The region covered by the Pacific program includes Hawai‘i, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau and American Samoa.

HONOLULU (August 13, 2015) – Nearly 100 student fellows from 40 countries and territories have arrived in Hawaii to participate in East-West Center programs this fall. The new graduate students and leadership program participants join a community of more than 110 continuing EWC participants in a diverse residential community on the East-West Center campus.

The new student fellows are participating in the EWC’s Community Building Institute, a two-week intensive activity that introduces the international students to Hawaii’s culture and major issues affecting the Asia Pacific region.

HONOLULU (Aug. 18, 2015) – Thanks to more than $84,000 in funding from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the East-West Center’s 2015 Senior Journalists Seminar, which seeks to improve relations between the U.S. and Muslim regions, will include more Middle Eastern journalists and, for the first time, arts and culture reporters.

HONOLULU (Sept. 3, 2015) – The East-West Center has received a $45,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to launch a series of agenda-setting workshops focusing on the impact of Asia Pacific trade agreements on trade and innovation in the region.

The East-West Center New Challenges for Trade and Innovation Workshop series, headed by EWC Senior Fellows Dieter Ernst and Michael Plummer, will bring together trade economists and experts on innovation, intellectual property rights, competition law, technical standards, and industrial development from the U.S., Asia and Europe.

Honolulu Attorney Turbin chosen to head EWC’s Board of Governors;
Peter Ho and Ronald Moon appointed to board by Gov. Ige

HONOLULU (Feb 2, 2016) – Members of the East-West Center’s Board of Governors have elected Honolulu attorney Richard Turbin to serve as the board’s new chairman. At a meeting today, the board named Turbin, a member of the board since 2011, to succeed R. Brian Tsujimura, who had served his maximum term as chairman. Tsujimura will remain on the board as co-vice chair, along with re-appointed Vice Chair Margaret Carpenter, and as chair of the Development Committee.

Longtime Taiwan IBM executive Gary S.H. Lin donates $300,000
to support EWC student scholarships and arts programs.

HONOLULU (March 14, 2016) – The East-West Center Foundation has received its largest single donation ever from a degree fellow alumnus. Longtime Taiwan IBM executive Gary S.H. Lin, who was a student at the Center in the 1960s, has donated $300,000 to support EWC student scholarships and arts programs. $250,000 of Lin’s gift will establish a scholarship fund to provide awards for one or more students from Taiwan who have an outstanding academic record and financial need, while the remaining $50,000 will provide support for Taiwan-related exhibitions or performances by the East-West Center Arts Program.

EWC Okinawan projects specialist Bob Nakasone
establishes $50,000 endowment in parents’ honor

International group of 14 accomplished journalists will travel to China, Japan and Hawai‘i to explore the economic future of the Asia-Pacific region.

HONOLULU - (March 23, 2016) -- The East-West Center has announced the selection of 14 accomplished international journalists for its 2016 Jefferson Fellowships travel-study seminar. The print and broadcast journalists from 10 countries and territories will travel together in May to China, Japan and Hawai‘i to gain on-the-ground perspectives, deepen knowledge of regional issues and build a professional network of contacts. Participants represent a range of top news organizations including CNN International, National Public Radio, Times of India, Straits Times and others.

The selected Jefferson Fellows are:

WASHINGTON, D.C.(May 11, 2016) - The Asia Matters for America initiative of the East-West Center today launched a new online resource, Asia Reacts, which tracks Asia’s reactions to important developments in U.S.–Asia relations during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The effort will monitor responses of Asian governments, media, and experts.

HONOLULU (June 16, 2016) – The Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center has launched a new and improved version of its Pacific Islands Report news website, which provides readers with a free, curated roundup of current news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific islands.

HONOLULU (Aug. 8, 2016) – The East-West Center has been awarded a three-year grant totaling $300,000 from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in support of the Center’s Senior Journalists Seminar media exchange program, which seeks to enhance media coverage and elevate the public debate regarding U.S. relations with Muslim majority regions.

HONOLULU (Aug. 26, 2016) -- The East-West Center Board of Governors announced that Dr. Richard R. Vuylsteke, an East-West Center alumnus with extensive experience throughout the Asia-Pacific region, has been selected as the next president of the East-West Center. The appointment of Dr. Vuylsteke concludes a year-long search involving several hundred potential candidates.