HONOLULU (June 24, 2011) -- HONOLULU (June 24, 2011) -- Dr. Nancy Lewis, Director of the East-West Center’s Research Program, has been named president of the Pacific Science Association. Lewis was elected at the organization’s 22nd Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last week.

“I am deeply honored to have been elected president of the Pacific Science Association as the PSA begins charting the course towards its hundredth anniversary in 2020,” Lewis said.

HONOLULU (Nov. 25, 2011) – The East-West Center is pleased to welcome the Henry Luce Foundation as a Gold Sponsor of the EWC’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.”

The Foundation has awarded EWC a special grant of $40,000 to help alumni of the Center’s annual Korea-U.S. Journalists Exchange program attend the conference. The Henry Luce Foundation has been a primary sponsor of the exchange program since 2006.

Starting with the first event in Bangkok in 2008, East-West Center’s biennial media conference has grown into one of the premier journalism meetings in the Asia Pacific region, with the 2010 conference in Hong Kong drawing close to 350 participants from 26 nations and attracting worldwide press attention.

HONOLULU (Jan. 6, 2012) -- The East-West Center has received two grants totaling $970,000 from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to support the U.S.- Timor-Leste and U.S.- South Pacific Scholarship Programs over a five year period. These programs aim to develop a corps of leaders who will contribute to political, economic and social development in their home countries and strengthen relations with the United States.

“By investing in tertiary education through initiatives like these, the United States is helping to foster prosperity, good governance, the rule of law, journalistic freedom, and human rights in the Asia Pacific region,” said Terance Bigalke, EWC’s Director of Education.

HONOLULU, HI (April 16, 2012) — As part of a partnership project with EWC's Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program (Pacific RISA), the Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy (ICAP), at the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program, recently published Water Resources and Climate Change Adaptation in Hawai‘i: Adaptive Tools in the Current Law and Policy Framework. The white paper aims to enhance climate change adaptation for water resources throughout the state.

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.”

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.

YANGON, MYANMAR (June 25, 2013) -- Sixteen distinguished journalists from 10 Asia Pacific nations, including the U.S., are currently visiting Myanmar on a study tour, as the East-West Center brings its internationally recognized Jefferson Fellowships journalists’ exchange program to the country for the first time in the program’s 46-year history.

HONOLULU (Jan. 10, 2014) – Twenty K-12 educators from South Korea have arrived at the East-West Center to begin a month of residencies in U.S. school communities in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. The ROK-US Teacher Exchange Program global learning and school immersion program is coordinated by EWC’s AsiaPacificEd Program with funding from the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding under the auspices of UNESCO and the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Education. Later this year, American teachers from the U.S. host schools will travel to Korea for reciprocal exchange and learning.

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. (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.

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.

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 (Sept. 16, 2015) -- At a gala dinner celebration last night with  550 people in attendance, the East-West center celebrated its 55^th year and honored master traditional navigator Nainoa Thompson with the Center’s Asia Pacific Community Building Award.

“If you’re building an Asia Pacific community, the inspiration comes from an Asia Pacific community, and that’s what we are in Hawai‘i,” said East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison. “There are a lot of inspiring examples in Hawai‘i, and we’re honoring one of the most inspirational tonight, Nainoa Thompson – a great inspiration to our students, a great inspiration to our state, a great inspiration to our island region, the Asia Pacific region and now to the world

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:

The East-West Center and the National Committee on North Korea are pleased to announce the launch of a new pilot project, North Korea in the World.

For decades, American policymakers have had limited substantive information about North Korea in their consideration of U.S. policy options, with the exception of the question of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and in more recent times, human rights.

HONOLULU (Oct. 27, 2017) – The East-West Center has received one of the largest single donations in its history from longtime institutional supporter the Hawaii Pacific Rim Society. The $2.3 million gift will establish the Hideo Murakami Fund for Scholarships and the Arts to support EWC arts programming and scholarships for participants in the Center’s Asia Pacific Leadership Program.

Previous scholarship recipients from throughout the Pacific mark the program's 25th year with a conference on professional opportunities

FIJI (Dec. 10, 2018) – Over this past weekend, 29 alumni from the US South Pacific Scholarship Program (USSP) attended a conference in Fiji titled ‘Connecting the Dots: Using your USSP Experience as a Path to Professional Opportunities.’ The conference held at the Outrigger Resort in Sigatoka gathered alumni from eight of the 11 countries where scholarships are awarded. The participants learned from each other’s experiences and shared how their experiences in the United States have changed their lives and helped their communities.