As you review our annual report, I hope that you will notice how the Pacific Council’s work in 2018 has been driven by the values that define us and our region. As an organization, we continue to maintain a deep commitment to impartiality and nonpartisanship. Throughout the year, we heard speakers from both sides of the aisle and from around the world, while striving to promote civil discourse based on evidence, facts, and yes—collegiality and good will.

Now more than ever we remain committed to integrity, the rule of law, democracy, freedom of expression, human rights and dignity, vibrant and unfettered journalism, and equity.

We are proudly committed to globalism; as a community, we believe that America’s global leadership favors American interests, that immigration is positive for the United States, and that the cultural and human values that make the American experiment so special are not obsolete. The values that define the Pacific Council reflect our home in Southern California. Los Angeles is not abstractly committed to globalism; it is its very embodiment.

Against a backdrop of tumultuous national and global politics, the Pacific Council continued to engage and inform our members by helping them to make sense of a confusing and rapidly changing world. This year we convened our inaugural Global Los Angeles Summit and PolicyWest conferences. We introduced new modes of programming to reflect the preferences of our members.

We launched a Virtual Book Club, skills-building webinars, interactive trainings, and a new special initiatives department. We found that these programs were especially popular among women and Emerging Leaders, our young members who will drive political and global change as the next generation of global leaders. In fact, in 2018 we saw a 10 percent increase in members age 40 and under.

The Pacific Council is committed to making certain that the next generation of decision makers genuinely reflects our society at large. In 2018, we dispatched a delegation of Emerging Leaders to Mexico City. We are also strengthening our Board and membership through the inclusion of future leaders. A cornerstone of the Pacific Council’s mission is to serve as an incubator for the next generation of international affairs decision makers.

In 2020, the Council will celebrate its 25th anniversary.

It is a time for us to reflect on our history and impact as an organization, while also looking to the future to see how we can make a difference. We are reflecting upon what the world and what Los Angeles need, and what solutions the Pacific Council can offer.

It is an exciting and pivotal moment for those of us involved with the Pacific Council on International Policy. We eagerly seek your collaboration and input as we approach 2020, and greatly value your continued support of our work and of our mission. Our members, supporters, and donors are essential to our success.

My warmest thanks for your commitment to the Pacific Council and for your continuing engagement going forward.

Sincerely,

Jerrold D. Green, President and CEO, Pacific Council on International Policy

The Pacific Council is an independent nonprofit committed to furthering constructive, sophisticated discourse on international affairs.

We believe in cultivating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive global affairs community. Respect, civility, and nonpartisanship underpin our work to encourage civic participation and global engagement to promote peace, prosperity, sustainability, and human rights.

The mission of the Pacific Council is to build the vast potential of the West Coast for impact on global issues, discourse, and policy.

This year, the Pacific Council made a public commitment to embrace the inclusion of all voices in our community, across our membership, leadership, staff, event speakers, and guests, regardless of race, ethnicity, ability, class, religion, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other differentiating characteristic.

Under that commitment, we implemented a variety of innovative activities and program structures in 2018 to engage our members in new ways, taking into consideration location, accessibility, affordability, and professional need. Based on member feedback, we created virtual offerings, more social and networking events, and casual settings with lower barriers to entry.

Thanks to your helpful input and staff dedication to this effort for the past few years, the Council is poised to continue to build on its inclusion practices in 2019 and beyond.

We also convened an Emerging Leader Task Force that gave recommendations about improving our program offerings and inclusion practices to the Board of Directors.

“We recommend that the Council provide regular opportunities for Emerging Leaders to develop expertise on foreign policy issues by co-producing programming with them, and featuring them as speakers, moderators, and interviewers, even if their expertise is still growing. Personally, this has been a beneficial experience for me as a young member.”

– Karen Richardson, Co-Chair, Emerging Leaders Task Force

In April, the Pacific Council hosted its first Emerging Leaders Delegation. Fourteen young professionals traveled to Mexico City, subsidized by Pay It Forward funds, to hold discussions with government officials, civil society leaders, and others on strengthening the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

“There are extraordinary opportunities to have more strategic relationships to expand trade that would be mutually constructive. There are opportunities to cultivate more workforce cooperation across the two regions—and really the mega-region—from a Southern California/Mexi-Cali/Baja California perspective.”

– Angelov Farooq, Mexico City Delegate

“I came away with more knowledge about Mexico as a large, deeply cultured country. Geography has much to do with the nature of the caravans that travel annually through the country (gleaned via our visit to the U.S. Embassy). Geography also plays a part in the disparity between wealth and poverty, as well as the stratification and consolidation of crime and cartels at the northern and southern borders of the country.”

– Kareena Kirlew, Mexico City Delegate

Thanks to those same funds, Emerging Leaders were also able to join the Pacific Council to observe the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) maritime exercise in Hawaii, and travel to Seattle for a national delegation to explore global policy at the nexus of business, national security, and innovation.

“With generous support from the Pay It Forward campaign, I was able to participate in the Seattle delegation at a reduced rate for Emerging Leaders within the Pacific Council community. I want to offer up my sincere gratitude to everyone that has contributed to the Pay It Forward campaign. Without their generous support, my participation in the delegation, as well as much of my participation in rewarding events over the past two years, would simply not have been possible.”

– Aaron Brooks, Seattle Delegate

These activities were made possible by the generous donations collected during our Pay it Forward Annual Giving Campaign in 2016 and 2017.

Thank YOU for helping us amplify new voices in our community.

“We no longer live in the foreign policy world of Allen Dulles or Henry Kissinger. New international policy issues arise every day, and with them come an array of new voices. The Pacific Council would do well to infuse its leadership with people who will be dealing with these issues for decades to come.”

– Jared Schott, Co-Chair, Emerging Leaders Task Force

At our inaugural PolicyWest fall conference, Pacific Council President and CEO Jerry Green shared a vision for the Council as it approaches its 25th anniversary in 2020. He said the Pacific Council must reflect the evolving character and composition of our community through our membership, leadership, staff, and programming.

To this end, the Pacific Council strives to change the face and practice of global affairs. It is our goal to set a new standard for diversity, equity, and inclusion in our field.

As we move toward the future, we hope to better mirror the broader community in Los Angeles, the city we call home. We are aiming for more diverse representation across our membership, staff, and Board of Directors, especially in the area of gender parity, and we laid the foundation for that goal in 2018.

In the spirit of true inclusion, we invite all of our members and donors to be part of this journey with us. What the Pacific Council has to offer—civil discourse and impact on international affairs—is for everyone.

You can find data about the composition of our staff and Board of Directors in the respective sections below.

In 2018, the Pacific Council reflected on the impact we’ve had over the past few decades as the leading global affairs organization on the West Coast. It was also a year of exploring how we will have impact in the future, as we approach our 25th anniversary and look to the next quarter century.

Since 2015 when we launched our current 5-year strategic plan, the Pacific Council’s mission has been to build the vast potential of the West Coast for impact on global issues, discourse, and policy. We strive to represent the range of West Coast global policy interests and perspectives and cultivate an informed and civically-engaged membership that contributes at local, national, and global levels.

Our work promotes an educated populace, a stronger West Coast culture of international engagement, and improved policy formation and implementation in key issue areas.

In order to fulfill our mission in 2018, the Pacific Council initiated collaborations with new audiences and supported members working on innovative projects in global affairs, such as the Project to Strategically Protect Soft Networks. We also renewed the legislative call to action of the GTMO Task Force, an ongoing program that sends Council members to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to observe official proceedings.

Here we capture some of our most exciting accomplishments and collaborations in 2018, which elevate the talents and expertise of our members while sharing the Pacific Council’s values with the rest of the world. A special thanks to our funders and donors who have made these efforts a reality.

Two Ways We Have Impact

GTMO Task Force Report

On the 17th anniversary of 9/11, the Pacific Council’s Guantánamo Bay (GTMO) Task Force announced the release of its second report, A Matter of Time, to renew the call for federal judges to preside over the military trials at Guantánamo. The report builds on recommendations made in 2016, several of which were adopted in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018.

The Task Force’s new report proposed that federal judges (or military judges, to the extent they remain empaneled) should have the authority to:

• Issue binding orders on discovery and sanction parties that do not or will not comply
• Require the defense to establish the legal necessity of its discovery requests—or face a discovery cutoff and the start of trial
• Require the prosecution to produce relevant discovery—or risk losing the right to pursue the death penalty at sentencing
• Appoint a magistrate judge and an electronic discovery specialist to help manage the data at issue.

These proposals reflect the unanimous conclusions of the non-partisan Task Force, comprised of 23 Pacific Council members and legal experts who have spent a collective 255 days at Camp Justice as observers of the Guantánamo proceedings. While the report circulates among legislators in Congress, Task Force member Hon. Robert Bonner published an op-ed about the report’s recommendations in the Los Angeles Daily Journal in October.

The GTMO Task Force is chaired by Mr. Richard B. Goetz and Ms. Michelle M. Kezirian.

Collaboration with USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

This fall, the Pacific Council launched a new collaboration with the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism and Professor Philip Seib, a long-time Pacific Council member, to create a graduate-level class on foreign reporting. The class enrolled eight graduate students—most of them in Annenberg’s M.S. Journalism program—to think critically about covering international issues from a city like Los Angeles. The students wrote stories about vibrant immigrant communities on the West Coast, efforts to right historical injustices, and complex legal and tax issues. They also had front row access to Pacific Council events, including our inaugural PolicyWest conference, and covered the issues discussed and debated by experts.

The Pacific Council and USC plan to continue the endeavor and welcome a new class in 2019, while continuing their ongoing operational cooperation, started with the Council’s founding in 1995. A special thank you to Dean Willow Bay and USC Annenberg for a sustained and fruitful partnership with the Pacific Council.

“I decided to move into a career in journalism in the hopes of raising awareness about important international stories that many Americans would otherwise never think twice about. Seeing the enthusiasm at the PolicyWest conference and the incredible work my classmates are producing has made me optimistic about the future of foreign reporting and my contribution to the field.”

– Mikayla Bean, M.S. Journalism candidate, USC Annenberg

Project to Strategically Protect Soft Networks

The project to Strategically Protect Soft Networks (SPSN) is an effort led by Pacific Council member and retired U.S. Army Colonel Steve Miska to engage the U.S. policy community around the development of policy measures that effectively protect soft networks, or local partners in conflict zones. After Miska served multiple combat tours in Iraq, he was exposed to the extreme sectarian violence that plagued those who aided U.S. forces and set out to aid the local-national partners in his unit.

The Pacific Council is working with SPSN to engage other Pacific Council members in a policy development process that seeks to ensure our allies’ faith in the United States’ missions abroad. SPSN and the Council hosted a discussion at PolicyWest featuring a former Iraqi interpreter and an American who hosted an Afghan family fleeing violence abroad.

Her perspective helped members understand the experience from a prospective sponsor viewpoint. SPSN continues to examine and develop nontraditional protection methods and best practices used throughout the world to protect at-risk local partners, and is evaluating practices from the NGO community, federal law enforcement agencies, and refugee protection doctrine.

Thank you to the Smith Richardson Foundation for supporting SPSN.

Partnership with Isla Urbana

A group of Pacific Council members and staff teamed up with Isla Urbana, a social enterprise based in Mexico City that provides rainwater harvesting systems to water-stressed communities in Mexico, to support a mapping project of Mexico City’s water stakeholders. The project resulted in a report analyzing common water priorities across 32 water stakeholders from academia, government, civil society, and the private sector.

The Pacific Council also supported the participation of two Los Angeles high school students in the 2019 Isla Urbana High School Summer Program, in which the students will help install a rainwater harvesting system in a community in Mexico and learn about the country’s water scarcity.

The project combines the Council’s work in water scarcity with our Mexico Initiative, offering an exciting opportunity for members and the LA community to gain hands-on experience for global impact.

A special thanks to the Honorable Michael Camuñez for his support and leadership of the Mexico Initiative in 2018.

The Council is delighted to work with the Los Angeles Rams through our Corporate Member Program. We asked Maria Camacho, Director of Government Affairs at the Rams, where the team finds value at the Pacific Council.

PACIFIC COUNCIL: How have the Rams and the Council collaborated in the past year?

MARIA CAMACHO: Thanks to the Pacific Council’s Mexico Initiative and as a result of my participation in the Pacific Council’s Emerging Leaders Delegation to Mexico City in Spring of 2018, I pieced together opportunities for our organization to engage in dialogue with Mexico leading up to the Rams’ planned game in Mexico City in November 2018. Before the game, our Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President, Kevin Demoff, joined the Consul General of Mexico, Carlos García de Alba, and the Pacific Council’s Jerry Green in a candid dialogue regarding the interdependence of brands locally and abroad, such as that of the Los Angeles Rams, and the importance of prioritizing such international relationships.

PC: Our President and CEO Jerry Green calls the Rams “the world’s home team” because of LA’s diverse international population. How does the team approach community engagement?

MC: Watching Angelenos come together behind the Los Angeles Rams since their return home to Los Angeles in 2016, whether in times of need in our community or in times of celebration, reminds us of the power we have as a sports team to unite our region. At the Los Angeles Rams, we believe in the importance of using our platform to create meaningful connections with surrounding communities by embracing and celebrating our region’s diversity.

PC: Any exciting plans for global connections in 2019?

MC: We hope to utilize our new stadium, Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, as a way to engage in global dialogues given the district’s ability to redefine the sports and entertainment experience throughout the world.

The LA Rams are joined by AECOM, Amgen, Cedars-Sinai, Lockton Insurance, and Whittier Trust as the Pacific Council’s corporate members. Learn more about corporate membership by contacting us.

The following are the Pacific Council’s audited Statements of Financial Position and Activities for the year ending December 31, 2018.

Individual donors, foundation grants, and corporate sponsorships comprise the highest cadre of annual supporters of the Pacific Council. We gratefully acknowledge the generous financial contributions of the following individuals in 2018:

Christopher Society

Mr. Sonny H. Astani
Amb. Frank & Mrs. Kathrine F. Baxter
David & Marianna Fisher
Mr. & Mrs. Robert & Mimi Liu
Alicia Miñana & Rob Lovelace
Marc & Jane Nathanson
Amb. Robert H. Tuttle & Ms. Maria Hummer-Tuttle

Chairman’s Circle

Mrs. Lynn A. Booth
Mr. Charles C.Y. Chen
Mr. Hans J. Dau & Ms. Deborah Benton
Dr. Bradford W. & Mrs. Louise D. Edgerton
Amb. Rockwell & Mrs. Marna Schnabel

President’s Circle

AECOM
Amgen
Amb. Colleen Bell
Ms. Pamela Brady
Cedars-Sinai
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Ms. Carla Christofferson
Mr. Robert Eckert
Mr. Arnold & Ms. Judy Fishman
Mr. Richard B. Goetz
Goldman Sachs Gives
Mr. Michael & Ms. Terri Kaplan
Dr. David & Mrs. Sandra Lee
Lockton Insurance Brokers, LLC
Mr. William R. Loomis Jr.
Los Angeles Rams
The Mesdag Family Foundation
Mr. Adam & Ms. Lauren Nathanson
Mr. Arthur J. Ochoa
Mr. Barry Porter
Nelson & Sharon Rising
Nancy and Miles Rubin
Mr. Fredric Rosen & Ms. Nadine Schiff-Rosen
The Harry & Florence Sloan Foundation
Mr. Jay and Ms. Deanie Stein
Whittier Trust

Ambassador’s Circle

AnchorFree Inc.
Dr. Nina Ansary
Hon. Michael C. Camuñez
California Community Foundation
Mr. Arthur N. Greenberg
Nell Cady-Kruse
Hon. Mel Levine & Ms. Connie Bruck
Mr. George Nolfi
Jane and Ron Olson
The Crown Robinson Family
Ms. Mary Lu Tuthill
Ms. Carole Wagner Vallianos & Mr. Peter Vallianos

Benefactor Level

Anonymous
Mr. Russell Goldsmith, City National Bank
Mr. Scott W. & Ms. Allison Christopher
Seth Freeman & Julie Waxman
Mr. William H. Hurt
Joan and Irwin Jacobs
Hon. Mickey Kantor & Ms. Heidi Schulman
Mr. Georges Khneysser
Ms. Sherry Lansing
Ms. Nancy A. Lieberman
Ms. Zohreh Mizrahi
Mr. Scott Olivet
Donald & Susan Rice
Charles H. Rivkin
Teddy & Ellen Schwarzman
Mr. Steven Stathatos
Dr. Cynthia A. Telles
Ms. Lynda Thomas
Ms. Barbera Thornhill
Embassy of the U.A.E.
Mr. David J. & Ms. Claudia Zuercher

Patron Level

Robert Adler & Alexis Deutsch Adler
Robert J. Allan
Mr. Jonathan Beutler
Ms. Joan Borinstein
Ms. JoAnn Bourne
Joe & Margot Calabrese
The California Wellness Foundation
Mr. Mark & Mrs. Anne-Marie Cappellano
Mr. Alexander L. & Ms. Linda Cappello
Ms. Carla Christofferson
Ms. Gail Cohen
Mr. Bradford Freeman
Ms. Leslie Gilbert-Lurie
Ms. Frida P. & Mr. Joel Glucoft
Amb. Nina L. Hachigian
Mr. Fred Grant & Ms. Tara Hubbard
Mr. Brett R. Johnson
Ms. Perlette M. Jura
Hon. Mickey Kantor & Ms. Heidi Schulman
Mrs. Michelle M. Kezirian
Ms. Joanne C. Kozberg, Ms. Lindsey Kozberg
Mr. Roy Landstrom
Mr. Christopher Lawson
Mr. Harry J. Leonhardt Esq.
Gail & Warren Lieberfarb
Mr. Li Lu
Mr. Jim Lovelace
Frank & Melanie Monestere
Mr. Steven S. Myers & Ms. Vivian Soren-Myers
Ms. Heidi Novaes
Ms. Suzanne Nora Johnson & Mr. David Johnson
Larson O’Brien LLP
Mr. J. Alan Orlob
Ms. Viveca Paulin-Ferrell
Mrs. Allison & Mr. Win Pescosolido
Mr. Arnold & Ms. Anne Porath
Mr. David Rosenblum
Sanders Charitable Fund
Mr. Richard & Ms. Ellen Sandler
Susan C. Schnabel & Edward L. Plummer
Mr. Harry & Ms. Marta Stang
Mr. Ken Solomon
Mr. Nicholas H. Stonnington
Mr. Richard & Ms. Sandra Swarz
Ms. Josie Tong
Mr. Todd Toral
Ms. Leslie Weisberg & Mr. James Hyman
Mr. Jeffrey & Ms. Vanessa Wright
Mr. Richard Ziman

We regret to report the passing of our sustaining member, Mr. Roy Landstrom, in January 2019. The Council sends our condolences to his wife, Sharon Gam, and their family.

The Honorable Marc B. Nathanson

Co-Chair
Chair, U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (1995-2002); Vice Chair, National Democratic Institute; Advisory Council, USC Center on Public Diplomacy

Ambassador Rockwell A. Schnabel
Co-Chair
Chairman, The Sage Group, LLC; Former U.S. Ambassador to Finland and the European Union

Directors

A special welcome to our new Directors in 2018: Emilio Cadena, John Emerson, Michael Lawson, Gene Sykes, and Maria Salinas.

In 2019, the Pacific Council Board of Directors plans to add two or three Emerging Leaders to the Board, allowing them the opportunity to participate in leading and providing strategic direction for the organization.

Executive Team

Dr. Jerrold D. Green, President & CEO

Ms. Jennifer A. Faust, Executive Director

Ms. Kasia Bzdak Perdue, Vice President & COO

Ms. Melissa Lockhart Fortner, Vice President

Staff

Ms. Lauren Batten, Development Officer

Mr. Justin Chapman, Communications Officer

Ms. Nastasha Everheart, Chief Membership Officer

Ms. Amy Exelby, Senior Officer, Planning and Evaluation

Ms. Julia L. Jamnejad, Chief Innovation Officer

Mr. Alex Jasiulek, Membership Outreach Officer

Mr. Chaka Jones, Operations Officer

Ms. Amie Kashon, Senior Officer, Initiatives

Ms. Madison Jones McAleese, Communications Associate

Ms. Ashley McKenzie, Senior Officer, Delegations

Mr. Alexandre Moore, Events Officer

Ms. Marissa Moran, Senior Communications Officer

Ms. Kelley Newton, Executive Coordinator to the President & Board

Ms. Ilyssa Padrid-Dykman, Member Engagement Officer

Ms. Sumaya Quillian, Programs Associate

Mr. Derek Richardson, Development Officer

Ms. Moriah Tafoya, Programs Associate

Ms. Ina Thigith, Membership Associate

Mr. Thomas Zimmerman, Chief Programs Officer

Ms. Millie Zucker, Special Assistant