Brian Abrams

Brian T. Abrams is the founder of B Ventures Group, an innovative new investment fund applying venture capital toward global peacebuilding and conflict resolution. Before that, he managed over $1 billion in assets, saw nearly 10,000 startups, sat on over 15 boards of directors, and generated top-tier returns. All of that taught him that a human-centric approach to investment is not only the right way but also the best way. Venture capital should be a financial means to a human end, not the other way around. 

Convisero Mentor Lucy Kaplansky Live at BOMBYX Center for Arts & Equity

On A Winter's Night ft. Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky, Patty Larkin

Ticket made available here.

Presenting the Reunion Tour of “On A Winter’s Night” from veteran singer- songwriters that remain among the brightest stars of the singer/songwriter movement for the past three decades. In 1994 Christine Lavin gathered them together, along with folk and Americana artists to showcase music of the Winter Season on the now-classic On A Winter’s Night CD, followed by several years of touring collaborations. These artists have released dozens of recordings and toured steadily through the decades, with fond memories of their touring days together. The winter season is again celebrated by these unique and popular performers, back together by popular demand.

Christina Goldbaum's latest: Syria, Lebanon, and more

Convisero mentors meet at J-Street event on Palestinian and Israeli attitudes post-October 7th

Sherman left, Kahil Shikaki (Founding Senior Fellow of Brandeis Crown Center for Middle East Studies) middle, and Convisero mentor Padraig O'Malley right

J-Street recently hosted an event on Palestinian and Israeli attitudes post-October 7th. Their values hold the belief that only a negotiated resolution agreed to by Israelis and Palestinians can meet the legitimate needs and national aspirations of both peoples.

Padraig left, Sherman middle, and Dahlia Scheindlin (fellow at Century International, based in Tel Aviv)

Working in the American political system, in the Jewish community and with others with whom J-Street shares core values, they advocate for diplomacy-first American leadership and policies that advance justice, equality, peace, and democracy in Israel, in the wider region and in the United States as well.

Convisero mentor Ted Kurland convening: Politics War Room with James Carville and Al Hunt

This live show was held on November 3, 2024. A note of acknowledgement to Convisero mentor Ted Kurland who convened this event.

Al Hunt, Dorris Kerns Goodwin, and James Carville

Political strategist James Carville and revered journalist Al Hunt convenes a war room each week to discuss the “battle for the soul of the nation!”

This episode centered on the U.S. presidential election, the significance of polling data, and the implications for democracy. The speakers reflected on the qualities of effective leadership, drawing parallels between historical figures like Lincoln and Roosevelt, and emphasized the importance of character in leadership, among other seminal topics.

Their podcast featured here includes my question which can be found on minute 1:20:31.

International Court of Justice Proceedings in The Hague by Columbia Prof. James Hansen

The International Court of Justice is hearing from scores of nations before it issues an advisory opinion on the "Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change." The key issue is whether international law requires nations to phase out production, distribution and use of fossil fuels and otherwise pay damages to the most vulnerable and hardest-hit of nations.

The other panelists are:

  • Eelco Rohling, Professor of Ocean and Climate Change at the Earth Sciences Department at Utrecht University.

  • Appy Sluijs, Professor of Paleo-oceanography at the Earth Sciences Department at Utrecht University. 

  • Ingrid Robeyns, Professor of Ethics of Institutions at the Ethics Institute of Utrecht University. 

  • Dan Galpern, General Counsel of Climate Protection and Restoration Initiative, and my long-time legal and policy adviser. [Dan's backgrounder on the proceedings is here.]

More can be read here.

Convisero mentor Sherif Mansour: "Investigating Gaza" at Source!

Convisero mentor Sherif Mansour hosts a panel at Source! Center for Investigative Journalism Symposium. Seen here is the link to his event.

Investigating Gaza: Given the difficulties of getting reporters into Gaza, journalists have been using remote methods – like AI and open-source technology – to find out what is going on there. Two reporters talk about the difficulties and opportunities of these methods, and the battle to uncover the truth.

Featuring: Krishna Karra and Abu Bakr Bashir

Chair: Sherif Mansour

Remembering President Jimmy Carter: National Security Archive

From Convisero mentor Tom Blanton’s National Security Archive. More can be found at the National Security Archive here.

The late President Jimmy Carter, contrary to the views of some critics, was typically focused, knowledgeable, and strong-willed on matters of foreign policy, often responding sharply to attempts by his most senior aides to bend his thinking, according to a review of the voluminous documentary record on Carter’s presidency.

A case in point is Carter’s relationship with his national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Every week, Brzezinski sent the president a memo intended to combine both factual reporting and personal observations on global affairs. Carter often wrote brief marginal notes on those memos in reply, which in retrospect open a window into his own thinking about the world and approaches to foreign policy.

A revealing example is Brzezinski’s April 21, 1978, “NSC Weekly Report,” an 8-page memo that immediately launches into a page-and-a-half appeal to modify and toughen administration foreign policy by doing more than just “negotiating agreements and devising formulas.” What was missing in the U.S. approach, Brzezinski wrote, was a hardnosed effort to “influence attitudes and to shape political events.” Sounding for all the world like his famously realpolitik predecessor, Henry Kissinger, Brzezinski called for a slew of other tactics, including an occasional “demonstration of force ... to infuse fear;” “saying publicly one thing and quietly negotiating something else;” “letting problems fester until they are ripe for action;” and using “black propaganda to stimulate difficulties for our proponents.” “The world,” he ended, “is just too complicated and turbulent to be handled effectively by negotiating ‘contracts’ while neglecting the need also to manipulate, to influence and to compel.”

Carter’s handwritten replies to most of these ideas are no more than a few words but they are graphic in conveying the president’s disapproval and even sarcasm regarding Brzezinski’s ideas. Next to the mention of force, he writes “Like Malaguez?” – a reference to a forcible rescue operation of a merchant ship (the Mayaguez) off Cambodia in 1975 that ended disastrously. Next to “saying publicly one thing,” he scribbles “Lying?” – an allusion to his core campaign pledge to reject the public dishonesty of the Nixon/Kissinger years and never to lie to the American people. In other places, he simply underlines the passage and puts a question mark in the margin. Finally, reacting to Brzezinski’s statement that he plans to develop some of these ideas further for the president, Carter writes: “You’ll be wasting your time.”

Wrap-up of 2024 - Best of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Warm regards from the ISYP Advisory Board, on which I serve.

Calculated retreat of the Great Aletsch Glacier during the 21st century. (Figure modified from Jouvet and Huss, 2019). This figure is from an article featured as a 2024 Bulletin magazine highlight, "The Alps’ iconic glaciers are melting, but there’s still time to save (most of) the biggest."

Reposted from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists:

The best of the Bulletin's bimonthly magazine, 2024

By Dan Drollette Jr 

Melting glaciers, demagogues, climate crises, fusion bombs, breadfruit trees, and the Greta Thunberg of AI. Each of these subjects was at the center of articles from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' bimonthly magazine in 2024, and each of those articles was among our best magazine articles of the year. Read more, and stay tuned for highlights in upcoming newsletters.

We cannot afford another lost year for food and climate action

By Emile Frisson

Last year, organizers of the annual UN climate negotiations finally got around to dealing with agriculture as a source of carbon, using the occasion to unveil a so-called "roadmap" for bringing the world's food production into line with global climate goals. But has the UN gone far enough? Read more from this highlighted 2024 magazine piece.

BEST OF 2024

Emerging experts of 2024: Fresh thinking about the military (and TikTok)

A naval research analyst. A journalist covering arts and culture. A PhD candidate in international studies. A former Navy helicopter pilot turned military professor. And a master's student in management science and engineering. These were among the emerging experts the Bulletin published in 2024.

Bulletin editor Dawn Stover collected 2024 highlights from our "Voices of Tomorrow" section. Selections are below, and check out the article for more on killer robots and nuclear petting zoos.

Who needs a government ban? TikTok users are already defending themselves

By Hali Mecklin

TikTok will be banned in the United States as of January 19th, unless its Chinese owner sells the platform to an American company—or the Supreme Court (which will hear oral arguments on the case on the 10th) rules that the ban passed by Congress violates the First Amendment. Most users aren't worried about the alleged national security threat, but some are quitting TikTok for a different reason. Read more.

Escalating to de-escalate with nuclear weapons: Research shows it's a particularly bad idea

By Daniel R. Post

Many strategists believe that escalating a conflict—by threatening the "limited" use of nuclear weapons, for example—may be an effective way to compel an adversary to back off. The author's research, however, strongly suggests that escalating a nuclear conflict is much more likely to provoke an adversary into continued resistance and possibly counter-escalation. Read more.

By sending nuclear weapons to the United Kingdom, could the United States be fueling nuclear proliferation?

By Janani Mohan

An air base in the United Kingdom is being upgraded with the expectation that the United States may station nuclear weapons there for the first time in 15 years, as a response to the growing instability caused by Russia's war on Ukraine. Stationing can address near-term security concerns, but expansion of this practice runs the risk of increased proliferation. Read more.

How many people were killed by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Video by Erik English

One of our foremost multimedia publications of the year, the Bulletin released a video based on Alex Wellerstein's research, first published in "Counting the Dead at Hiroshima and Nagasaki." The video features footage of Hiroshima prior to the bombing, generously provided by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, and highlights the difficulty of quantifying the devastating human toll of nuclear weapons. Watch now.

Convisero mentor Izzeldin Abuelaish’s interview with The Guardian: "I refuse to hate"

Palestinian doctor and five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Izzeldin Abuelaish, has experienced immense personal tragedy. In January 2009, an Israeli tank shell hit his home killing his three daughters and one of his nieces and in October this year, 22 members of his extended family were killed in Jabaliya refugee camp by an Israeli airstrike. Dr. Abuelaish speaks to the Guardian about how his personal loss has made him determined to push for peace.

Link to the video can be found here.

James Henry

James S. Henry, Esq. is leading investigative economist, attorney, teacher, and activist with a strong focus on front-line global justice issues like kleptocracy, tax havens, and the climate crisis. In the private sector, Mr. Henry has served as Director of Economic Research (chief economist), McKinsey & Co.; VP Strategy, IBM/Lotus Development; Business Development Manager, Chairman's Office (Jack Welch), GE; and Senior Consultant, Monitor Company. He is founder of Sag Harbor Group, a strategy consulting firm that has served such leading clients as ABB, Bell Labs, Charles Allen & Co., the Calvert Fund, Cemex, ChinaTrust, the Joint Caribbean Task Force (Scotland Yard/FBI), IBM/Lotus, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Swedish Power Board, TransAlta, Volvo, and Daikin.

In the pro bono world Mr. Henry is a Global Justice Fellow and a Lecturer on the Yale faculty, where for 6 years he has co-authored a weekly seminar for Yale graduate students and upper-year undergraduates on "Global Justice Problems" – urgent interrelated matters like the global warming, tax dodging, kleptocracy, the future of democracy, the global art industry, and “dangerous technologies” (AI, fintech, nuclear power) that cut across national boundaries. He has also served as a Senior Fellow at Columbia University's Center for Sustainable Investment, where he has led seminars on international tax policy, the global haven industry, the remittance cartel, and "fintech" for the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Mr. Henry has been active “change maker.” He has helped to start and foster many activist NGOs. In 2003-4 he was one of the founding principals of TJN USA and the Tax Justice Network, a global NGO that led the fight against financial secrecy jurisdictions (“tax havens”), offshore tax avoidance by major corporations and wealthy individuals, and kleptocracy. He served as a TJN Senior Advisor (2005-2022), a global board member of TJN (2005-13) and TJN US (2005-present), and a liaison to the US tax reform organization Americans for Tax Fairness. From 2009 to 2015 he served as a board member of Long Island University. Since the 1990s he has also been a pro bono environmental lawyer and a ACLU/ NYCLU cooperating attorney in New York's EDNY, serving on NYCLU's Suffolk County board. In 2020-21, he served as a Board Member of Amnesty International USA, on its Finance and Strategy Committees. In 2021-23 he was a co-founder of The Institute for Access to Public Information (https://foia-foil.com), a NYS 501c3 devoted to litigating FOIA cases. In 2024 he is serving as Chairman and a co-founder of UAML.org, a global coalition dedicated to fighting money laundering.

In 2020-21, in the wake of New York's pandemic-induced fiscal crisis, Mr. Henry helped to organize a campaign to have New York State stop rebating $15 billion per year of badly-needed state tax revenues that NYS collects from its .1% stock transfer tax on Wall Street investors — most of whom are not NYS residents. This very practical progressive sales tax secured majority support in the NYS Senate and Assembly, but to date (2024) it has been unable to overcome the “capture” of the hierarchies of both major parties in NYS by Wall Street. This organizing effort did encourage the revival of a global campaign for a "financial transactions tax” (“FTT”) in the US, the EU, and Asia. From 2014 to the present he has been a key leader of the QPAM Coalition, a group of experts from six countries that has encouraged the US DOL to enforce its laws against criminal banks that advise US pensions funds. In 2024, for this year’s G20 in Brazil, Mr. Henry assembled an international coalition of experts on global warming, reforestation, and soil conservation to propose a “Global Reforestation Fund,” financed by a .1% global FTT, to promote soil conservation and cool the planet directly.

As an investigative economist with a global perspective, Mr. Henry is a leading practitioner of the “to the frontlines” school of reporting. He has written numerous pioneering investigative articles and books about international private banking, offshore havens, debt, capital flight, development, leading kleptocrats, and climate finance. Since the 1970s, he has conducted first-hand investigations of corruption, corporate chicanery, tax dodging, and debt in dozens of developing countries and havens, including the Philippines, South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti, the Bahamas, Barbados, Switzerland, Delaware, and the Cayman Islands. In the 1980s he authored the American Bar Association's first full-length analysis of US tax compliance. His award-winning books (Banqueros y Llavadolares. (Tercer Mundo, 1996) and The Blood Bankers. (Basic Books, 2003, 2005, 2014)) provided the first detailed investigations of the global underground economy and the rise of the global haven industry. He was the principle author of The Price of Offshore Revisited (July 2012/2013,2016, TJN), a seminal work on unrecorded offshore private wealth whose estimates have recently (June 2020) been validated by the OECD. His original reporting has appeared in many leading publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Business Week, the Nation, the New Republic, the Atlantic, The Financial Times, the Economist, Jornal do Brasil, the Philippines Inquirer, La Nacion, El Pais, The American Interest (Contributing Editor) and DCReport.Org (Senior Investigative Editor). In 2010 he was named the Edward R. Murrow Fellow in Investigative Journalism at The Fletcher School of Diplomacy. In 2016 he was a leading commentator and analyst on the ICIJ’s Panama Papers, and served as an member of the Iceland Special Commission that investigated the role of illicit offshore assets in Iceland’s 2007-2009 economic collapse. In 2019 he was named a Poynter Fellow in Journalism at Yale University. In June 2021 he received one of two TJN/AABA (UK) Annual Awards for Contributions to Tax Justice. In 2017-24 he has been a key advisor on several OCCRP investigations of kleptocracy, including its 2022 “Suisse-gate” investigation.

Mr. Henry has testified as an invited expert numerous times before the US Congress, the UN, the EU Parliament, and the FBI’s International Corruption Unit on global tax havens, the underground economy, and tax justice. He has also presented many TED talks, and has been a featured commentator on leading media outlets, including the BBC, NPR, CBC, Australia ABC, Zembla, ZDF, most US TV networks (ABC,NBC,CBS,CNN,CNBC, and MSNBC), and Al Jazeera. He also played a leading on-air role in several feature-length documentary films, including "The Giant Beast That Is the Global Economy,'" (Amazon Prime, April 2019); "The Finance Curse," (Nick Shaxson, et al, 2024); "The Price We Pay" (Harold Crooks, TIFF, 2014), and "We're Not Broke" (Charles Davidson, Sundance, 2013).

Born and raised in Minnesota, Mr. Henry is an honors graduate of Winona Public High School, Harvard College (Magna Cum Laude, Social Studies ’72; Detur Prize; Phi Beta Kappa, National Merit Scholar, Chairman, Student Advisory Committee, Kennedy Institute of Politics); Harvard Law School (JD.,Honors,1976); the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (MS, ABD, Economics, 1978);a Danforth Fellow; one of the original “Nader Raiders,” a member of the New York Bar since 1979, and an Adirondacks '46R. He and his family are based in New York.

Oleander Initiative in Japan - Directed by Convisero mentor Ray Matsumiya

Convisero mentor Ray Matsumiya is leading the Oleander Initiative as its Director. Below is a summary of the program’s description:

Program Summary

Ray Matsumiya

2024 Oleander Initiative Participants, from Canada, Kenya, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Months after the atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, a small patch of red oleander flowers bloomed out of the irradiated rubble. Since then, red oleander has symbolized both the dangers of nuclear war and the hope of a more peaceful future. In a similar spirit, the Oleander Initiative leverages the “power of place” of the city of Hiroshima – the first city to be devastated by nuclear weapons – to harness the power of education to promote more peaceful societies. 

The Oleander Initiative gathers educators from communities around the world to work together and transform the lessons of Hiroshima into relevant and impactful peace education activities for their students.  The Oleander Initiative generates deep awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons and equips participants with intellectual tools for conflict resolution and mutual understanding. 

Program Description

During early August in 2016 and 2017, educators from the Middle East, North Africa, Japan and the US gathered together during the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, today a vibrant metropolis known as the City of Peace. During the program, Oleander educators developed lesson plans for their students informed by interactions with atomic bomb survivors, schoolteachers from the city of Hiroshima, and from experts on the humanitarian impact of nuclear war. These lesson plans — fine-tuned and co-developed with Oleander staff and fellow participants during the program — have a concrete and tangible impact on their students and communities. They raise consciousness about the catastrophic global impacts of nuclear war and inspire our next generation to work locally to promote peaceful societies. 

Program Activities

  • Instruction from top academics in the fields of peace education and nuclear weapons issues

  • Testimonials from hibakusha atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki

  • August 6thatomic bombing memorial ceremony hosted by the city of Hiroshima

  • Educational collaborations with teachers and students from Hiroshima

  • Attendance at the World Conference against A & H bombs, the oldest and largest of its type

  • Personalized guidance to assist development of educational activities best suited for Oleander educators’ local contexts

  • Visits to Miyajima and Hiroshima Castle

  • Cultural Activities including Kagura performance, tea ceremony, and calligraphy

  • Three day visit to Nagasaki

  • Two day orientation activities in Tokyo

Preparing for Making Peace Visible 2025 Symposium in Washington D.C. with Convisero mentors Tamar Miller and Jamil Simon

We will be collaborating with Making Peace Visible’s 2025 International Symposium in Washington, D.C.

Making Peace Visible (MPV) is the only bridge-building organization dedicated to convening journalists and other media professionals with peacebuilders. Our mission is to foster a more informed, engaged civic culture that supports peace as an essential part of democratic participation. By activating cross-disciplinary connections, we aim to help reduce the prevalence of divisive narratives and promote methods of reporting that highlight peace and reconciliation efforts that help prevent and resolve conflicts.

2018 MPV International Symposium, NYTimes Center, NYC

MPV will launch our second international Summit in October 2025, in Washington, D.C. We will host experts in journalism, peacebuilding, neuroscience, and technology, examining how media both helps and hinders peace efforts. We will critically address how narratives about peace are shaped and disseminated; how the news can help educate the public on the viability, successes and long-term impact of peacebuilding; and how we might collectively implement strategies across all media platforms for powerful, transformative storytelling.

The Problem We Are Addressing: Multilayered peacebuilding is largely invisible, as our media landscapes are heavily dominated by reporting on bombs, blood, and bad news. Stories that capture human decency, mutual understanding, and heroic, painstaking peacebuilding efforts rarely see the light of day. This is despite growing evidence that media consumers, particularly in the U.S., increasingly prefer news that is hopeful, solutions-based, and constructive.

Scholars in media and journalism studies have long recognized that the news plays a crucial role in shaping public and political discourse. Conventional ways of covering political conflict distorts this discourse, offering the public a narrow, incomplete view that marginalizes, if not ignores altogether, key actors. This skewed narrative restricts opportunities for informed participation, depriving citizens of the full context needed to engage meaningfully in democratic processes. Oversimplified, polarizing narratives exacerbate conflicts, deepen divisions, and undermine public support for peace efforts.

Peacebuilding is a proven, long-term process that requires changing attitudes, behaviors, and social norms before, during and after conflict. It involves analyzing conflicts to understand their root causes and developing strategies to prevent and reduce violence. But peacebuilding will continue to be ignored as long as the public remains unaware of its proven effectiveness.

The 2025 International Summit: We are working with our partners and allies to move peacebuilders and peace initiatives closer to the front burner of public discourse. A two-day summit in Washington, D.C. will create a platform for key stakeholders in conflict reporting to engage with peacebuilders, neuroscientists, and technologists to examine how both the news media and social media play dual roles in hindering and promoting peace efforts. These key stakeholders include journalists worldwide, editors as gatekeepers, researchers providing critical media analysis, peacebuilders facilitating civil discourse, journalism students, and program officers at philanthropic foundations. The summit will feature dynamic presentations, experiential workshops, and the latest research, to foster strategies for reimagining media coverage of peace and conflict. We will also debut the first ever MPV Story Awards, monetary awards given to journalists for excellence in peace reporting. This event follows the success of our inaugural symposium at the New York Times Center in 2018, a partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting that attracted over 400 journalists and peacebuilders. Following this, MPV founder Jamil Simon was awarded the Luxembourg Peace Prize.

Our current partners include George Washington University Media and Peacebuilding Project, Beyond Conflict, and Search for Common Ground, and we are exploring partnership with several other leading organizations.

Themes and Outcomes: This summit will be a pivotal opportunity to refine media practices and promote improved conflict reporting. Incorporating pre- and post-event analysis and surveys, this summit will offer:

• Mindful and Inclusive Reporting Practices: Journalists will learn how peace initiatives are best reported, including best practices for ethical, trauma-sensitive reporting and the necessity of including a greater diversity of voices, especially the invaluable yet overlooked role women play in peacebuilding processes. Strategies to avoid biases, propaganda, and misinformation will also be included.

• Tech and Social Cohesion: The news media landscape has been transformed by social media and AI, democratizing information but also amplifying misinformation and divisiveness, which stifles peace narratives. Experts in tech and social cohesion will address these challenges and explore solutions.

• Neuroscience, Journalism and Peace: In collaboration with Tim Phillips of Beyond Conflict, we will feature discussions led by experts in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science, providing a deeper understanding of how media narratives and language influence human emotions, decision making, and behavior. We will explore strategies to create stories that include empathy, dialogue, and constructive conflict resolution.

• Peacebuilding Workshop for Journalists: We will offer an immersive workshop to provide a hands-on experience of conflict resolution. By modeling key aspects of the negotiation process, participants will gain a deeper understanding of strategies for de-escalation. This experiential approach will equip journalists with the tools to report on peace efforts more accurately.

• Communication for Peacebuilders: We will highlight case studies of effective peacebuilding communication, demonstrating how messaging and the creative use of both narrative and nonfiction media tools can influence public perception, encourage engagement, and foster peaceful outcomes. This will provide valuable insights for journalists and peacebuilders.

• Strengthened Collaboration and Networking: The summit will provide a rare opportunity for idea exchange and relationship-building among journalists, peacebuilders, media scholars, and funders, fostering future collaborations, advocacy efforts, and joint projects to improve conflict reporting.


Additional Offerings: To extend the reach of the summit beyond the event itself, MPV will incorporate these crucial dialogues into our online offerings in the form of podcast episodes, articles for our journal NUANCE, and video content for the MPV Education Initiative:

• Making Peace Visible Podcast Features journalists, peacebuilders, scholars and activists, grappling with the news media's impact on public perceptions of peace and conflict. Our 45+ podcast episodes have been downloaded in 124 countries.

• NUANCE is a seasonal online journal with essays, interviews, and photojournalism projects that explore innovative solutions for elevating peace in the media.

• MPV Education Initiative offers global training in ethical reporting, reconciliation coverage, and media literacy through online and in-person courses for journalists, journalism students, and educators.




Alex Wright-Gladstein

Alex Wright-Gladstein is an entrepreneur who is passionate about the climate crisis and finding ways to divert our dependence on fossil fuels in lucrative industries. After getting a BA in economics and political science at Tufts University in 2008 she went to MIT Sloan School of Management, graduating with an MBA in 2015 along with the Siebel Scholar, an award for leadership and academic excellence. 

Wright-Gladstein developed her passion for the environment at age 12, this interest strengthened while at college, where she saw the potential in connecting technology and climate action. During her time at Tufts she founded the Tufts Energy Forum, a program dedicated to educating the community about alternative energy sources, global energy supply and demand, and the geopolitical implications of the pursuit of energy resources. After graduating Tufts in 2008, Wright-Gladstein worked in data analytics at EnerNOC gaining some understanding of the technology that would go on to be a basis for her work. Determined to help environmentally-oriented tech start-ups succeed and expand, she decided to attend MIT to get a business degree. 

In 2015, after creating a business plan as a part of the MBA program, Wright-Gladstein decided to team up with two PhD students to further develop the project and participate in the MIT Clean Energy Prize, winning $275,000 as the grand prize. With this capital the team was able to get the start-up off the ground, eventually naming it Ayar Labs. Using Moore’s Law, the startup focused on the energy efficiency and optimization of fiber optic communications, using light to move data between chips in data centers and super computers. Wright-Gladstein worked as co-founder and CEO at Ayar Labs for over 9 years working with her colleagues to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the inventive technology. 

In 2021, Wright-Gladstein founded Sphere, an incorporation focused on making it easy for employers to offer climate-friendly 401(k) and 403(b) retirement programs to their employees. She came up with this idea after struggling to find retirement plans that didn't go towards fossil fuels, for her employees at Ayar labs in 2017. Wright-Gladstein learned that over 1.5 trillion dollars get invested in fossil fuel companies through United States retirement savings and was inspired to find a way to change the investment industry. Sphere has been added to financial service companies like ADP and Empower, expanding the opportunity to invest in sustainable 401(k)s to tens of thousands of organizations and millions of employees. 

Alex Wright-Gladstein is dedicated to seeing the future of the global economy changed through diverting the reliance on fossil fuels and has been and continues to be a pioneer in utilizing technology and the economy to change the way we see and participate in climate activism. 

Sphere bio https://www.oursphere.org/about-us/team

https://www.sunvalleyforum.com/alexwg

Ayar Labs interview https://designthesolution.org/wli-entrepreneur-spotlight-alexandra-wright-gladstein/

Sphere interview https://greenportfolio.com/blog/sphere-female-founder-alex-wright-gladstein/

Robert Massie

Robert Kinloch “Bob” Massie IV was born in 1956 to historians Robert K. Massie and Suzanne Massie. Bob Massie is an activist, clergyman, policymaker, and author. He has spent his life confronting the systemic injustices of the world. Through his strong sense of hope and vision of how the world could be he has continuously worked to create change through human connection and political, economic, and environmental action.

Bob has made a significant impact in the fields of sustainability, climate change, finance, and corporate accountability and has led several influential organizations.  He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the field of finance in 2002 by CFO magazine. 

He was born with factor VIII hemophilia and at age 12 his family moved to France for better and more accessible health care. While in France Massie regained the ability to walk. This experience helped form his political views on national health insurance in the US and made him a lifelong advocate. 

Massie graduated high school a year early and took a gap year during which he interned for Senator Henry M Jackson on the Senate Investigations Subcommittee. Massie wrote an informative and imperative report warning of the dangers regarding blood supply contamination by viruses like hepatitis A and B. 

Massie attended Princeton University from 1974 through 1978. During his time there he was a part of the student movement campaigning for Princeton’s disinvestment from South Africa, as well as pushing for equal access to the university’s dining clubs for women.

After graduating from Princeton with a degree in history, Massie attended Yale Divinity School graduating with a Master of Divinity in 1982. He became interested in the role business plays in American society while working for Ralph Nader at Congress Watch during a year off. Massie then attended Harvard Business School, graduating in 1989 with a Doctor of Business Administration. 

Massie was ordained as an Episcopal priest and founded a homeless shelter while serving as chaplain at the Grace Episcopal Church in New York City. He lectured at Harvard Divinity School from 1989 to 1996 and acted as Director of the Project on Business Values and the Economy. Massie received a Senior Fulbright Research Award in 1993 with which he was able to teach at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He published his book Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa In the Apartheid Years in 1997, winning the Lionel Gelber Prize for Best Book on International Relations the following year. 

In 1994 Massie was inspired by his knowledge of the urgency of climate change to run for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and was nominated as the democratic candidate. 

Massie was the executive director of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (Ceres) from 1996 to 2003. While president, he increased the organization's size and revenue greatly and founded the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) which became a permanent independent organization. Massie proposed and spearheaded the establishment of the Investor Network on Climate Risk and the Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk, which is now a gathering held every two years at United Nations headquarters, bringing together state treasurers, foundation presidents, asset owners and managers, pension trustees, and financial leaders. 

The GRI was funded by the UN, MacArthur, and Ford Foundations in 1997 and in conjunction with the UN Environment Program along with other groups instituted international disclosure standards for large companies and organizations on their environmental, social, and human rights records. The GRI’s guidelines are now being used by over 2,000 corporations across the globe. 

In 2009 Massie received the Joan Bavaria Innovation and Impact Awards for Building Sustainability in Capital Markets and in 2010 the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) at Tufts University awarded him the Damyanova Prize for Corporate Social Responsibility.

In 2012, Massie’s autobiography, titled A Song in the Night: A Memoir of Resilience, was published. The same year, he became president of the New Economy Coalition (NEC), an organization committed to transitioning our economic system from capitalism to a solidarity economy through a member-based network. The NEC’s members include grassroots community organizations, sectoral associations, nonprofits, and mission-driven businesses. Massie was the executive director of the Sustainable Solutions Lab at UMass Boston from 2015 through 2017. 

In 2017 Massie ran in the Democratic primary for Massachusetts Governor, focusing on workers’ rights, economic equality, and climate change initiatives. He also stated his commitment to acting on racial, economic, and gender justice  (including trans rights and safety). 


I have had the privilege of knowing Bob for several decades. There are few people in my circle with his imagination and passion,  or who are as knowledgeable or accomplished in as many fields.

In 2010 I created my Institute's Bory Damyanova Prize for Corporate Social Responsibility. in honor of a treasured student.   I wanted it to be a mark of integrity and public service. I awarded my inaugural award to Bob.

More links to Bob’s work below:

Photoville partnership with the United Nations - UNFPA UPROOTED: RESILIENCE AMIDST CRISIS

Sam Barzilay, a wonderful IGL alum and Photoville Co-founder, recently became a Convisero mentor and is heading up initiatives with many collaborations, some of whom are other mentors!

From Photoville’s Newsletter below is one such example of a collaboration with the United Nations:

UNFPA UPROOTED: RESILIENCE AMIDST CRISIS
UN Headquarters, Visitors’ Lobby, Gallery B | 46th Street & 1st Avenue

On view until February 7, 2025

In our continued partnership with the United Nations, we are deeply honored to announce the opening of, “Uprooted: Resilience Amidst Crisis” presented by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in curatorial partnership with Photoville on view at the UN Headquarters in NYC.

In honor of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, “Uprooted: Resilience Amidst Crisis” shines a light on the impact of violence against women, including sexual violence. The exhibition showcases the stories of survivors, the strength of affected communities to thrive and flourish, and the ongoing fight for justice and healing.

Through a vast collection of art, multimedia presentations, and personal stories, including photos depicting the range of places where violence against women and girls occurs, this exhibition provides a platform for survivors to share their experiences and for us to connect with this urgent issue. These images serve as a stark reminder that no space, online or offline, is immune or safe, as this violence is so pervasive.

“Uprooted: Resilience Amidst Crisis” invites us on a journey of education, reflection, and action. Together, we can amplify the voices of survivors, demand change, and work towards a world free from sexual violence and conflict.

Featured artists: Cyan Haribhai - South Africa | Mbuto Carlos Machili - Mozambique | Ana-Marija Tomić - Bosnia and Herzegovina | Simone Harris - Jamaica | Faizati - Malaysia | Students from colleges of fine arts in Damascus, Syria: Tayma Alim Lamia Saida, Sarah Kherbek, Sidra Dassouki, Kenan Abaza, Nagham Hasan, Naya Alkhoury, Kenan Alkowatli, Hazar Mohammed, Rama Younes | Armin Smailović - Bosnia and Herzegovina | Wendy Desert - Haiti | Samira - Egypt | Mihail Calarașan - Republic of Moldova | Gonzalo Bell - El Salvador | Diana Echenique - Brazil | Rawia Elkekli - Libya | NVISION LLP - Belize

Source! 10th Year Anniversary edition of the Centre for Investigative Journalism Logan Symposium

The Centre for Investigative Journalism present Source! the 10 year anniversary edition of the CIJ Logan Symposium.

Investigative journalism is in flux. Journalists need sources, but in the digital age those sources make contact in different ways, and sometimes don’t want to talk to journalists at all. What’s the best way to protect sources when reporting is often done remotely, when our sources are under threat and when keeping our sources safe can sometimes be a matter of life and death? Should we trust technology to keep us safe, or stay close to traditional journalist tradecraft and trust only our wits?

Led by investigative journalists, the newest edition of the biennial CIJ Logan Symposium, Source! brings together some of the most courageous and innovative new investigative reporters and outlets in the world to forge alliances against official censorship, surveillance and deceit – and to talk candidly about the landscape for the profession and its future prospects.

This time the CIJ partners with Freedom of the Press Foundation in New York, Disclose in Paris, Reporters United in Athens, The Public Source in Beirut and Declassified in London to bring you talks and presentations that tackle the most pressing issues facing us all – how best to protect sources and whistleblowers, to deal with government harassment and gagging orders and to make the most of exciting new investigative tools and methods.

Independent Journalism Awareness Raising: Spotlighting people and communities on the ground

+972 Magazine is an independent, online, nonprofit magazine operated by both Palestinian and Israeli journalists. Founded in 2010, their mission is to provide in-depth reporting, analysis, and opinions from the field in Israel-Palestine. The name of the site is derived from the telephone country code that can be used to dial throughout Israel-Palestine.

+972 Executive Director Haggai Matar with Geoffrey Lewis, Co-chair of the U.S. Advisory Board of the Abraham Initiatives pictured above.

The magazine’s core values are a commitment to equity, justice, and freedom of information. +972 believes in accurate and fair journalism that spotlights the people and communities working to oppose occupation and apartheid as well as showcasing perspectives often overlooked or marginalized in mainstream narratives.

+972 Magazine does not represent any outside organization, political party, or agenda. They publish a wide variety of views that do not necessarily represent the opinions of the +972 editorial team.

Johns Hopkins University first-ever Fencing newsletter! Winter 2024

I captained the 1963-64 Hopkins Mid-Atlantic and Mason-Dixon championship team and have been asked back by the Johns Hopkins fund to mentor current students by the HOPKINS CONNECT’s mentoring program of their Integral Learning and Life Design initiative. I particularly mentor Hopkins fencers.

Johns Hopkins is in the midst of another exciting season where women rank #4 (DIII) team holding a 6-3 record most recently beating #5 Tufts. The men are tanked #2 (DIII) and #14 overall having started with a 12-2 record. Twenty-two Hopkins fencers competed at the U.S. Fencing NAC in Atlantic City.

The Abraham Initiatives in the New York Times article "Why the Campus Protests Are So Troubling"

From the newsletter:

In May of this year, New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman encouraged his readers to make a difference – not just a point. He named The Abraham Initiatives as a crucial organization to support during the emergency period, when what matters most is real, on-the-ground impact.

In other words, supporting The Abraham Initiatives is not just a way to express your values; it makes a shared future possible.

“What Palestinians and Israelis need most now are not performative gestures of disinvestment, but real gestures of impactful investment…Invest in groups that promote

Arab-Jewish understanding, like the Abraham Initiatives.”

- Thomas Friedman, nytimes.com

 

The impact of investing in shared society has never been more evident. Throughout the past year, we have implemented new measures to prevent intercommunal violence in the mixed cities, begun developing a program to improve Jewish-Arab relations in workplaces, and advocated for the full implementation of laws directing resources to Palestinian citizens.