Author: Michele

Recent Immigration work

Posted on by Michele

One of the best things about joining The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has been the chance to return to immigration public policy debates. It was an honor to speak about immigration and business Monday, March 9th,  in honor of International Women’s Day at the Union League Club of Chicago with a fantastic panel including Mary Meg McCarthy of the Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center, Crate & Barrel founder Carole Segal of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition, Maria Socorro Pesqueira of Mujeres Latinas en Accion, and Moderator Alison Cuddy of the Chicago Humanities Festival. For more information about the event click HERE.

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Here also are links to a few recent media appearances: “Obama’s Immigration Plan Gives Ohio Businesses a Taste of Reform,” in the Cleveland Plain Dealer November 25, 2014; Executive Action Is Here -Time for a New “Start” on Legislative Reform on the Chicago Council’s Running Numbers blog, November 21, 2014; an interview “Immigration Reform” on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight November 20, 2014, and a radio interview on “Could Executive Action Clear the Way for Comprehensive Immigration Reform?” on WDCB-FM November 14, 2014

Joining The Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Posted on by Michele

I’m delighted to be joining The Chicago Council on Global Affairs this month, where as vice president of studies I’ll spearhead The Chicago Council’s efforts to generate new ideas and influence policy debates in the United States and abroad. The Chicago Council is an important global voice on addressing critical policy challenges, so I could not be more excited to be joining its talented team to develop impactful new ideas and approaches to some of today’s most important issues. On a personal level, I’m so happy to come home to the Midwest and the city where my great-grandparents met a century ago as newly arrived immigrants.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, founded in 1922, is an independent, non-partisan organization committed to educating the public — and influencing the public discourse — on global issues of the day. The Council provides a forum in Chicago for world leaders, policymakers and other experts to speak to its members and the public on these issues. Long known for its public opinion surveys of American views on foreign policy, The Chicago Council also brings together stakeholders to examine issues and offer policy insight into areas such as global agriculture, the global economy, global energy, global cities, global security and global immigration. Learn more at thechicagocouncil.org and follow @ChicagoCouncil for updates.

Read the press release about my appointment here.

Davos 2014: Takeaways for the Year to Come

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I was honored to attend the 2014 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which wraps up a season of predictions for the year ahead and helps set the coming agenda for world business, civil society and political leaders. Continue reading “Davos 2014: Takeaways for the Year to Come”

Confronting a Superstorm of Challenges: A New American Grand Strategy

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I was honored to moderate this year’s Tisch Forum on Public Health at Hunter College Roosevelt House, “Confronting a Superstorm of Challenges: A New American Grand Strategy,” on November 18, 2013.

 

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Davos 2013: Black Swans and Gray Rhinos

Posted on by Michele

Gray Rhinos are highly probable, high impact crises. Introducing a framework for dealing with these seemingly obvious but nevertheless very poorly handled events, I delivered this address at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 26, 2013.

CNN: Lean In to Learn from Global Examples of Women

Posted on by Michele

CNN In America asked me to put the brouhaha over Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, Lean In, into a global context. Here’s what I came up with:

Opinion: Lean in to learn from global examples of women

March 8, 2013

(CNN) – The courage of women like Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old student leader in Pakistan who was shot and nearly died for fighting for girls’ right to education; Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who endured nearly 15 years of house arrest because of her stand for democracy in Myanmar; and of precedent-setting presidents like Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil is inspirational.

America’s women and work discussion could take a lesson from other countries.

Americans make plenty of pronouncements about why countries like Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia should let women go to school, drive cars and have many of the rights American women take for granted.

But focusing exclusively on the extreme examples of restrictions on women’s rights elsewhere provides a convenient way to overlook the ways we could do better here at home.

READ MORE

Davos 2013 -Balance Short with Long Term Thinking

Posted on by Michele

My biggest takeaway from the 2013 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos was that we need to find ways to encourage long-term thinking -and acting. Read more HERE in this February 5th post to the World Economic Forum blog.

Down with Short Termism; Long Live the Long Term

If only I had a nickel for every time during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2013 that participants held up short-term thinking and actions as the bogeyman standing in the way of the Meeting’s Holy Grail: dynamic resilience.

Delivering a scathing assessment of the European Union’s response to the euro crisis, especially in the early stages, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti blamed it for short-term thinking when “leadership is the opposite of short termism.” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde similarly urged longer-term policy strategies: “If we look beyond the short term, we would indeed move past the crisis,” she said.

This is hardly the first time anyone has criticized short-term thinking as a danger. But the chorus of voices creates a real opportunity to move from talking to doing. Let’s use it to create the right incentives to encourage politicians, businesses, investors – and, for that matter, individuals – to think and act for the long term as well as for immediate priorities.

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