Board of Advisors

International Board of Advisors | Board of Directors | Staff |What They Are Saying About Empower Peace

Empower Peace is proud to have assembled a number of prominent and respected government, business, civic, and educational leaders from around the world to advise and provide input and support for our mission and programs. The following is a partial listing.

Victoria Budson

Victoria A. Budson is the founding Executive Director of the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. WAPPP analyzes cutting-edge issues as they impact women’s roles and lives. WAPPP conducts research, develops curriculum, and publishes materials focused on women and public policy. While at the Kennedy School, Budson was founding Executive Director of the Council of Women World Leaders, a group of current and former presidents and prime ministers. From 1999-2004, Budson served as a Kennedy School Ombudsperson.

Currently, Budson serves on the Board of Directors for the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) and iVillage Cares. The mission of NCRW is to harness the resources of its network to ensure fully informed debate, policies and practices to build a more inclusive and equitable world for women and girls. iVillage Cares, a national advocacy program designed to build awareness and support for causes of concern to women through iVillage, at present is a frequent destination site for 27 million women. Budson has been a member of numerous other Boards of Directors including: the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Massachusetts National Abortion Rights Action League, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, Women’s Legislative Network and Alliance, Massachusetts Coalition of Democratic Women, the Wellesley College Hillel Alumnae Board. Budson has served on the Steering Committee for the Massachusetts State Treasury’s Women and Money conference.

Budson speaks on various topics such as the future of feminism, gender and public policy, electoral politics and political action at institutions including Carnegie Mellon, Harvard University, Tufts University, Wellesley College, the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val- Kill, and the Center for Women’s Policy Studies. In 2002, she served as an advisor for the development of the United Nations’ University for Peace Masters degree program in International Peace Studies with specialization in Gender and Peace Building. Budson presented at the United Nations Beijing and Beyond International Women’s Conference. She is a frequent commentator for news publications, television, and radio programs. Appearances include: Fox News Live, the Boston Globe, WGBH Boston, WSBK Boston, and Talk of the Nation and The Connection on National Public Radio. She reviewed and edited the childbirth chapter for the 2005 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

Before coming to Harvard, Budson was the Political and Community Affairs Director for Steve Grossman, President of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Budson has also worked extensively in Massachusetts’ politics, both as an activist and an elected official on the state and local levels. As the elected Chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for a Democratic Future, the official statewide organization of young political activists affiliated with the Democratic Party, Budson grew the organization to over 2,000 members. She has held a seat on the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee, which is the governing body for the state Democratic Party. She served as Chair of the Wellesley Democratic Town Committee and as a member of the Wellesley Town Meeting.

In addition to her grassroots and electoral work, Budson is an active political consultant. As Finance Director for Massachusetts State Senator Cheryl Jacques, she established one of the largest campaign accounts in the Massachusetts State Senate. She also served as Finance Director for Massachusetts State Representative Rachel Kaprielian, and has worked with EMILY’s List, an organization that raises money for pro-choice, democratic women candidates.

Awards Budson has received include: the “Rising Star” award for her outstanding work to advance the political education of women from the Network for Women in Politics and Government at UMASS Boston, the Carol Moseley Braun Award from Mass Choice, and the Dean’s Award for Excellence at the Kennedy School. Budson graduated Magna Cum Laude and with Departmental Honors from Wellesley College with a joint degree in Sociology and Women’s Studies. As a graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Mid-Career Masters in Public Administration Program, she received the Lucius N. Littauer Fellow award for her distinction in academics at the Kennedy School, her contribution to the Kennedy School and the greater Harvard community, and her potential for continuing leadership excellence.

John Zogby

Pollster John Zogby is President and CEO of Zogby International, a worldwide research and marketing firm based in Utica, New York, with offices in Washington D.C. and Miami. He founded the company in 1984, and now conducts business in more than 70 countries. While much of Zogby's polling is conducted using live telephone operators, over the past decade, he has developed an interactive polling methodology that has become extraordinarily accurate. Zogby has said he believes this online polling methodology is where the future of polling is headed, as more than 90% of likely voters nationwide say they regularly log onto the Internet to check email or get their news.

For the 2008 election season, Zogby teamed up with Reuters, the world's leading news wire service, and C-SPAN, the leading news outlet covering the United States federal government, to provide political survey research on the race for the White House. Since 1996, Zogby has polled for Reuters, and in 2000 to 2004, polled for NBC News. His clients also include MSNBC, CNBC, the New York Post, Fox News, Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Gannett News Service, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Albany Times Union, the Buffalo News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cincinnati Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Toledo Blade, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and nearly every daily newspaper in New York State, as well as television stations throughout the U.S.

He has been spoofed on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the Late Show with David Letterman. He has been profiled in the New Yorker, Fortune Magazine, Inc., and Investors' Business Daily and has also appeared on major television networks and both U.S. and international cable news programs. High points of his career were his October 28, 2004 and January 9, 2008 appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Zogby currently writes a weekly column for Forbes.com and a monthly column for Politics magazine. His analytical expertise has also been published on the opinion pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday and the Boston Globe. He is also a founding contributor to the prestigious website, The Huffington Post. Following his correct call in the 1997 New Jersey gubernatorial election, the Houston Chronicle exclaimed, "and the winner again is John Zogby." Mary Matalin, host of her own national radio show, calls Zogby the "prince of pollsters," and Barry Farber has declared him "America's Pollmaster General."

Zogby holds degrees in history from Le Moyne College and Syracuse University, and taught history and political science for 24 years. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of Le Moyne College. He received the distinguished Alumni Award in June 2000, and in 2005, he was awarded Honorary Doctorate Degrees from State University of New York and the Graduate School of Union University. Mr. Zogby is also a Senior Advisor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and serves as the first-ever Senior Fellow of the Catholic University Life Cycle Institute in Washington, D.C. He also serves on the Advisory Council for Bio-Technology for the Center for Strategic and International Studies and is a Commissioner on CSIS's Commission on Smart Power. Zogby is a much-sought-after lecturer and panelist. A combination of dynamic intellect and engaging style has made him the speaker of choice for universities, organizations, corporations and associations throughout the world. His speaking engagements are handled exclusively by the American Program Bureau, a leading international speakers bureau. He lectures all over the world.

He is the author of The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream, which was published by Random House in August 2008 and is now available online and in bookstores. Zogby's analysis of years of data yields an astonishing perspective on Americans' thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, now and in coming years. Understanding this emerging reality will be key for leaders in all fields who want to reach audiences that are more media-savvy, better informed, and more technologically enabled than ever before, individuals in search of rewarding and fulfilling careers in tomorrow's growth fields, politicians and CEOs looking to marry policies and practices to the rising demand for social responsibility, and anyone who wants to market to the emerging new American consensus. Beyond telling a fascinating story, the conclusions in this book are a must-read for everyone from Main Street to Madison Avenue to Capitol Hill. The Way We'll Be will redefine how we view America's future.

He is married to Kathleen Zogby, a retired special education teacher, and has three sons, Jonathan, Benjamin, and Jeremy.

Denis Sullivan

Denis J. Sullivan (Ph.D., University of Michigan), Director of International Affairs, 1995 - present. Dr. Sullivan is Professor of Political Science at Northeastern and Director of the Middle East Center for Peace, Culture, and Development. Prof. Sullivan served as Chair of Political Science at Northeastern (2001-2003).

Dr. Sullivan established the "Dialogue of Civilizations Program" in 1998, beginning with the Egypt Seminar. The "Dialogues" now include student-to-student exchanges and independent field research in Egypt, China, Greece, Spain, Turkey, South Africa, Niger, Thailand, Mexico, Cyprus, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, and dozens more countries.

Since 1987, Dr. Sullivan has been an Affiliate in Research at Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. In 2002 and 2003, he was the Director of the Institute in Governance, Public Policy, and Civil Society in Toledo, Spain.

Prof. Sullivan's most recent books are Egypt: Global Security Watch, with Kimberly Jones (Praeger, 2008), The World Bank and the Palestinian NGO Project: From Service Delivery to Sustainable Development (Jerusalem: PASSIA, 2001); and Islam in Contemporary Egypt: Civil Society vs. the State, with Sana Abed-Kotob (Boulder: L. Rienner, 1999). Recent articles and chapters include: "Egypt" in Countries at the Crossroads: A Survey of Democratic Governance (A Freedom House Publication, 2005); "The U.S.-Egypt Partnership: Are Human Rights Included?" in Human Rights Implementation Project , (Institute of Peace, 2004); and "The Struggle for Egypt's Future," Current History, January 2003.

Dr. Sullivan is a consultant to the U.S. State Department on Islam and the Middle East as well as to the World Bank on its Palestinian NGO Project. He works with K-12 teachers on professional development and teacher training on introducing Middle East studies in primary and secondary schools.