SPOTLIGHT
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Please join us for our annual Holiday Event! |
NEWSLETTER
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LAFF’s Recollections Project Up and Running
The LAFF Society has created an informal oral history project, the Recollections Project, a gathering of individual reminiscences designed to “contribute to the institutional memory of the Ford Foundation and to help us get to know each other better”. |
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Managing Poverty: Lessons Learned in Making a Difference
By Roland V. Anglin Roland Anglin, after a long career working in community and economic development, has learned that “We may never see a time again where this country’s public policy aims to eliminate poverty, but we have learned important lessons about how to manage poverty. These lessons are needed now more than ever.” |
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China, Global Health and the Role of the China Medical Board By Lincoln Chen Lincoln Chen thinks back on his fourteen years as president of the Rockefeller-endowed China Medical Board, and the Ford Foundation’s connection to his work. |
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Through the Years in China: A Story of “Intersections”
By Joan Kaufman The many ways the Foundation influenced Joan Kaufman’s career after her stint as a program officer in China, and all the intersections of people, places and issues that came together and formed a trajectory for the social justice issues she has worked on. |
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Access to Civil Justice Using Nonlawyers: A Study
Mary McClymont has written a report based on a study she made of the use of nonlawyer “navigators” in state courts to help people who cannot afford lawyers. |
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The LAFF Family Gathers in New York
Nearly 100 people—LAFF members, family and friends, and Ford Foundation staff—attended the get-together March 21 at the renovated Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York City. |
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Syrian Family Comes Home To Town Ravaged By War
By Christopher Reardon The author, who worked for Ford Foundation’s Office of Communications from 1992 to 2006, is Chief of Content for UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency. This article, is a poignant description of the human toll of eight full years of war in Syria. |
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The New American Orchestras: Engines of Fresh Energy, Ideas
By George Gelles In a phenomenon of which Mac would surely have approved, a new breed of orchestra has emerged, providing an antidote to the perceived symphonic stuffiness that might partially explain audience attrition. |
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Learning Not to Hate: Lessons From Aunt Lucy By Sally Kohn The more I got out of my own liberal bubble, the more I met other conservatives who were neither stupid nor hateful, or at least no more deliberately hateful than I was. |
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My Life at Ford and in Politics: “Pursuing the Audacious”
Susan Hairston explores how the successes and “bumps in the road” she encountered while working at the Ford Foundation prepared her for the “wild wild west” of local politics in New Jersey. |
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Eight former Foundation staff who had participated in EDAG meetings, and four of their spouses, gathered in Oaxaca, Mexico, last August for an amazing and enjoyable week of activities. |
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Making Schools Better: “What it Means to be a Human Being” By Greg Farrell Greg Farrell, founding president and CEO of EL Education, writes about the “radical and surprisingly successful national school reform organization and public school network”. |
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Among the Makassae in East Timor
Shepard Forman, president of The LAFF Society, presented this paper on his experiences as a young research anthropologist at a meeting of the Timor Studies Association in July in Brasilia. |
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Wielding the Purse Strings of Southeast Asian Civil Society
By Rosalia Maria Emanuela Sciortino As democracy experiences a global decline, and Southeast Asia oscillates between authoritarian endurance and democratic rollback, civil society in the region is facing a bleak future. |
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Where Are All the American Orchestra Conductors? By George Gelles George Gelles wonders why Leonard Bernstein’s breakthrough has led to a dead end, in a country as vast as ours and as artistically rich in homegrown talent. |
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From LAFF’s Archive: A Tribute to Marvin Feldman
In the Summer 1994 issue, the late Edward Meade, co-founder and first president of LAFF, paid tribute to Marvin Feldman, who had died in November 1993. |
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Many of our members post photos on our Facebook page, personal notes on their lives and work, that are well worth checking out. |
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Nellie Toma, LAFF’s secretary-treasurer, has completed the arduous task of indexing every newsletter since the Society’s inception in 1991. |
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Economic Policy for Human Rights By Radhika Balakrishnan In a talk at a Carter Center forum on “Restoring Faith in Freedom”, Radhika Balakrishnan poses the question “what is the economy for?” |
LAFF PARADE |
News About Former Ford Foundation Staff, Summer 20199/30/2019 News about N. Bird Runningwater, Brandee McHale, Sonali Mukerjee, and Graham Macmillan. |
CLIPPINGS
Selection Of Articles Published Elsewhere
The most disastrous mistake since 2003 invasion of Iraq10/13/2019 Gary Sick is watching events unfold in the Middle East. |
Profile of Darren Walker In The New York Times7/26/2019 The Ford Foundation’s new emphasis on giving to combat inequality is explored in a profile of the foundation’s president, Darren Walker, in the July 12 issue of The New York Times. |
OCT 31 EVENT: Creative Process in Dialogue: Art and the Public Today10/4/2018 Poet and President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Elizabeth Alexander and painter Amy Sherald. Discussion presented by Bard College. |
Risks and Benefits of the U.S. Speaking Out About Iran1/4/2018 Gary Sick is interviewed by Robert Siegel of NPR about U.S. policy options on Iran. |
Former Tulane President Eamon Kelly dies7/8/2017 Former Tulane President Eamon Michael Kelly died on Wednesday, June 28, at the Tulane Medical Center following complications from surgery. He was 81 years old. |
The Iran nuclear deal has been a Middle East game-changer6/14/2016 By Gary Sick and Frank G. Wisner. Two years ago, a new war in the Middle East appeared very likely. The government of Iran, despite enduring the most severe international sanctions ever imposed on a noncombatant power, insisted on increasing its nuclear program. |
Opinion: Robert Curvin, and Leaving the World Better Than the Way You Found It.By Roland V. Anglin | 10/5/2015 Celebrating and commemorating a man whose accomplishments cannot be contained by any one list. |
Now Showing: Brian Mori's Play2/24/2015 Brian Richard Mori’s celebrated play Hellman v. McCarthy is being performed in Beverly Hills, Calif., at Theatre 40 and the Saban Theatre through Sunday, March 1. Next: Salt Lake City. |
A Musical Event with John Koprowski: Five Years That Rocked the World 1964-19692/16/2015 A retrospective look at an era which influenced music, culture and history for the next half century. |
Men are problem and solution to violence against women, says Breakthrough's founder Mallika Dutt1/19/2015 In the wake of rising incidents of violence against women across the country, Iamin talked to Mallika Dutt, founder of Breakthrough. |
Strikes on ISIS. Now What?9/25/2014 Bassma Kodmani contributed to the "Room for Debate" discussion in the New York Times. |
Brian Mori's play on Channel Thirteen9/25/2014 Brian Richard Mori's play "Hellman v. McCarthy," will be aired on October 9th and 12th during Channel Thirteen's weekly series, "Theater Close Up". |
National Security Council Veteran Weighs In on Foley, Hostages, and ISIL's Brutality8/21/2014 The brutal killing of American photojournalist James Wright Foley by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (or Syria) has sparked outrage. With ISIL threatening to kill a second hostage, journalist Steven Soltoff, The Wire spoke with Gary Sick, who served on the National Security Council for President Jimmy Carter. |
Coalition Seeks Public's Advice on New York City's Goals11/11/2013 As Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio prepares to succeed Michael R. Bloomberg, a coalition of leading foundations will unveil an ambitious citywide effort to enlist regular New Yorkers in sharing their views about the city’s future. |
Ubinas Reflects on Six Years as President of the Ford Foundation8/6/2013 In a wide-ranging interview with Rahim Kanani of the Skoll World Forum, Ubiñas reflects on his tenure at the foundation, the state of philanthropy today, measuring and evaluating long-term progress, critical lessons in leadership, and much more. |
After a Gay Rights Victory, A New Challenge for Grant MakersBy Michael Seltzer | 7/12/2013 The Supreme Court found that the Defense of Marriage Act violates the constitution of the United States and that marriage equality is the law in those states where same-sex marriage is legal. It’s also time for philanthropy to reflect on its power to further social justice |
Warren Wilson president is down-to-earth guy4/26/2013 For those of us whose leanings are toward gentler disciplines such as literature and philosophy, a quick perusal of Warren Wilson College President Steve Solnick’s curriculum vitae might invite a touch of academic intimidation. |
Reminiscences on a grantee-grantor relationshipBy Rosalia Maria Emanuela Sciortino | 1/16/2013 When one reaches a certain age – as in my case – there is a tendency to look back and reflect on one’s experiences, including the transformations in one’s own career landscape over time. In the more than 20 years of working with international philanthropic and development organisations of a grant-making nature in Southeast Asia, I have seen many ideologies and trends emerge and wane. |
Ford Needs a Smarter Approach to Newspaper Grants8/14/2012 The Ford Foundation’s announcement last month that it is providing $500,000 to help The Washington Post strengthen its coverage of government-accountability issues is inappropriate and a waste of money. |
Blame Saddam: Another Way of Seeing Iran's Nuclear Program4/20/2012 “When the revolution happened in 1979 the Shah of course was in the midst of developing a nuclear power program, and everybody suspected that he was really going to go for a bomb,” notes Gary Sick, a Columbia University expert who was at the National Security Council when... |
Foundation Files Reveal Insights on Culture4/9/2012 James Baldwin needed some money. It was 1959, six years before Congress created national endowments for the arts and humanities to support struggling artists and cultural institutions....Mr. Lowry had the last word in deciding which artists, writers and performers would receive grants from the Ford Foundation, the richest private source of cultural largess at the time. |
Occupy Wall Street Abandoned PR 101By Leslie Gottlieb | 4/9/2012 I wasn’t involved in the Occupy Wall Street activities, although I followed the movement closely and admired many of its ideas and ideals. As a public relations professional, however, I was increasingly frustrated by the inability of its participants to adhere to basic PR principles. If they had, I believe they would have made a much more powerful impact on the public... |
Media Watch | Leaks Ahead of Nuclear Talks4/8/2012 "If it's Sunday," Columbia University scholar Gary Sick wrote in an email to Gulf 2000, a listserv he moderates, "it must be time for major U.S. government 'leaks' (really planted stories) about Iran. Positioning and spinning is particularly important with negotiations possibly ready to start." |
Corporate Personhood with Fran KortenBy Frances Korten | 4/7/2012 YouTube Video - Fran Korten, Executive Director of "Yes!" Magazine talks about our relationship to corporations and how we can end corporate rule. She spoke at Chimacum High School on March 30, 2012 with Steven Reisler, President of the Seattle Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. |
What It Will Take to 'Graduate' 1.2 Billion People Out of Extreme Poverty4/4/2012 A new report from the World Bank brings welcome news on the global poverty front. |