The USAID Alumni Association co-hosts occasional speaker luncheons with DACOR Bacon House. Development Dialogues at DACOR (DDD) provide a comfortable setting for USAID alumni and others to meet, dine and discuss overseas development issues in US foreign affairs. For the many UAA and DACOR members who live outside the DC region and cannot attend, an
audio podcast of most DDD presentations and discussion is made available on our respective websites within a day or so of the event.
Alumni speaker and topic suggestions are most welcome at <DDD@usaidalumni.org>. Following is a list of DDD speakers and topics to date:
Date | Speaker | Topic |
---|---|---|
November 18, 2013 | Geoffrey Lamb President of Global Policy and Advocacy, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation | Rethinking Development Assistance for a Post "Aid" World |
July 25, 2013 | Dr. Andrew Steer President, World Resources Institute | How Green is the World Growing? What to Watch for in 2013 and Beyond |
October 2, 2012 | Larry Garber Director of USAID/PPL Offices of Science & Technology, and Learning, Evaluation and Research | USAID Forward: Projecting a 21st Century Development Agency |
July 31, 2012 | Princeton Lyman Special Envoy to Sudan, Dept. of State | The Unprecedented Gains in Global Development and Implications for the Future |
June 19, 2012 | Steve Radelet Chief Economist USAID | The Unprecedented Gains in Global Development and Implications for the Future |
November 28, 2011 | Isabelle Tsakok Former World Bank Economist, Independent Consultant | Success in Agricultural Transformation” |
October 26, 2011 | Connie Veillette Center for Global Development | The Future of Aid Amid Austerity” |
August 4, 2011 | Maany Peyvan USAID/A, Chief Speechwriter | Administrator Shah’s Speeches and Themes – Behind the Scenes |
April 19, 2011 | Carol Lancaster Dean, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; former USAID Deputy Administrator | Sixty Years of Foreign Aid – What Have We Learned? What Have We Accomplished?” |
March 18, 2011 | Larry Heilman former USAID FSO | “Bolivia – 70 Years of USG Development Assistance…Surprising Findings” |
February 1, 2011 | Steve Radelet USAID Chief Economist | “Emerging Africa: How Seventeen Countries Are Leading the Way” |
January 25, 2011 | Janet Ballantyne former Senior Advisor to USAID Administrator, Deputy Administrator, and Mission Director | “USAID at 50 – Alumni Retrospectives on Development” |
November 30, 2010 | James Foster Professor, George Washington University | “Multidimensional Measures of Poverty” |
October 5, 2010 | Fred Schieck former USAID Deputy Administrator | "The Development 'D' - Running With the Big Dogs, Defense and Diplomacy" |
July 20, 2010 | Aaron Williams and Stacy Rhodes Director of Peace Corps and Chief of Staff | "The Peace Corps: Turning 50" |
June 29, 2010 | Rev. Dr. David Beckmann President, Bread for the World | "America's Role in the World - Mobilizing the Grassroots for Foreign Assistance Reform" |
April 6, 2010 | John Mellor former USAID Chief Economist | “Using Foreign Aid to Build Rural Political Support for Government in Conflict Societies – A Currently Unacceptable Position” |
October 13, 2009 | Sheila Herrling Senior Policy Associate and Director, “Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Program,” Center for Global Development; leader of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network | “Current Status and Prospects for Revamping the Structure and Content of U.S. Foreign Development Assistance” |
July 7, 2009 | Peter McPherson former USAID Administrator and Chairman of the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation | “The Organizational Structure of Foreign Assistance” |
June 2, 2009 | Henrietta Fore former USAID Administrator and Director of United States Foreign Assistance | “Prospects and Challenges for Reforms in U.S. Foreign Assistance” |
May 5, 2009 | James Kolbe former US Congressman, R-AZ | “A Transatlantic Call for Renewed Leadership AND Partnerships for Global Development" |
April 7, 2009 | Steve Sinding Retired USAID Director, Office of Population, and USAID Mission Director, and Director General, International Planned Parenthood Federation | “Reflections on USAID's 'Golden Era' in Population & Family Planning: Leadership Views from 1978 - 2008” |
January 16, 2009 | Brian Atwood former USAID Administrator, currently dean of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota | “Development and Diplomatic Missions: How They Relate” |
December 2, 2008 | Witney Schneidman Director of Global Sullivan Principles, formerly an official at State Department, World Bank, and Center for Strategic and International Studies | “The Future Role, Directions, and Structure of U.S. Development Assistance: A Personal Perspective” |
May 6, 2008 | Andrew Natsios former USAID Administrator, Currently Distinguished Professor in Practice of Diplomacy, Georgetown University | “Fragile and Failed States: the Development Challenge” |
April 14, 2008 | Dennis de Tray Vice President, Center for Global Development | “Getting the Focus Right: US Leadership in the Fight against Global Corruption” |
FYI: DACOR (http://dacorbacon.org/) is an organization of foreign affairs professionals founded in 1952 as a place to foster interests in foreign affairs, to maintain and renew friendships, to celebrate lives shared in distant places, and to meet younger officers as they begin their careers. DACOR Bacon House, the home of DACOR, is a beautiful historic building near the World Bank and the “Old Executive Office” Building bequeathed in 1980 by the late Virginia Murray Bacon. It was Mrs. Bacon’s intention to “simply provide a quiet place for…meetings…to facilitate international peace and understanding by bringing together leaders in the field of foreign policy and international relations and law for the purpose of defining and resolving international problems.”