Mr. James W. McJunkin has been with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for 24 years. He holds a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Administration of Justice from the Pennsylvania State University. Mr. McJunkin began his professional career as a trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police, holding assignments in Troop E and Troop D. During his career in the FBI, he has served in the San Antonio, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. field offices.

Mr. McJunkin served as a field agent in both the San Antonio and Atlanta Field Offices and he also held the position of Supervisory Senior Resident Agent while assigned to the Atlanta Field Office. In connection with these assignments, which spanned nearly 17 years, he led or supervised many important investigations in the Organized Crime, White Collar Crime, Violent Crime, Drug Trafficking Crime, Civil Rights, and Counterterrorism arenas.

In 2003, Mr. McJunkin was promoted to FBI Headquarters where he held the positions of Unit Chief and Assistant Section Chief within the International Terrorism Operations Section - I (ITOS I), Counterterrorism Division. In 2004, Director Mueller appointed Mr. McJunkin to direct a multi-agency task force assembled to address an Al Qaeda-sponsored terror attack against the 2004 Presidential Election, for which he was later recognized as a recipient of the US Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award. Mr. McJunkin was also awarded the National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation in connection with his Counterterrorism assignments.

In 2005, Mr. McJunkin was selected as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Washington D.C. field office where he provided leadership and supervision to the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF); provided management to all substantive counterterrorism investigations conducted within the National Capital Region; and he supervised a number of significant overseas investigations involving terrorism attacks against U.S. citizens. In March, 2006, he led a team of FBI investigators with the on-scene investigation of a terrorist attack against the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan that claimed the life of a career Diplomat and several foreign nationals. In August, 2006, Mr. McJunkin was appointed Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Washington, D.C. field office, Counterterrorism Division.

In January, 2007, Mr. McJunkin was selected as a member of Senior Executive Service, and after a short stint as the Deputy Director for Law Enforcement at the Central Intelligence Agency, he was appointed as Section Chief of International Terrorism Operations Section I. On January 24, 2008, Director Mueller designated Mr. McJunkin as the Deputy Assistant Director for FBI Counterterrorism Operations - Branch I, and on January 29, 2010, Director Mueller named Mr. McJunkin as Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division. The three year span that Mr. McJunkin led FBI Counterterrorism operations also coincided with the busiest threat environment facing the US and produced by far the highest number of actual or attempted terrorist attacks committed on US soil since 9-11.

On November 10, 2010, Director Mueller named Mr. McJunkin as Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field Office where he currently leads the FBI’s second largest field office.

events/luncheons/James-W-McJunkin-24Jan2012/gallery

Luncheon Talk

Ambassador Namık Tan was appointed Ambassador of Turkey to the United States in February 2010. Prior to this appointment, Ambassador Tan was Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for bilateral political affairs and public diplomacy.

He was previously Ambassador of Turkey to Israel from 2007 to 2009.

Ambassador Tan joined the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1982. After working in the Department of Maritime Affairs, he was posted to Moscow as Second Secretary from 1984 to 1987. He then spent two years as First Secretary in Abu Dhabi.

After returning to Turkey, Mr. Tan served as the Deputy Chief of Cabinet to the Turkish President until 1991.

He was later assigned to the Turkish Embassy in Washington, where he served as Counselor from 1991 to 1995 and First Counselor from 1997 to 2001. Between these assignments, Mr. Tan served as Chief of Cabinet to the Turkish Foreign Minister.

Upon his return to Turkey in 2001, he first served as Head of the Department for the Americas, and was subsequently named Head of the Information Department in 2002. He went on to serve as the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2007.

Born in 1956, Ambassador Tan holds a law degree from Ankara University. Ambassador and Mrs. Fügen Tan have two children.

Moderator
Dr. Joshua Walker

Dr. Joshua Walker is a Transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund based in Washington, D.C. He is also a non-resident fellow at the Crown Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University and a Truman National Security Fellow. Joshua`s forthcoming book focuses on the role of historical memories in post-imperial successor states, with a particular focus on Japan and Turkey's domestic and foreign policies.

Among his many affiliations, Joshua has most recently been a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Tokyo University, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Transatlantic Academy and taught at Istanbul Sehir Merkez, Middle East Technical University, George Mason, Princeton, University of Richmond, and Yale. At Princeton University his Ph.D. is in Politics and Public Policy with a specialization on international relations and security studies.

He holds a Master's degree in International Relations from Yale University and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Richmond. He was a Fulbright Fellow in Ankara, Turkey and has worked for the U.S. Embassy and State Department on Turkey and grew up in Sapporo, Japan where he lived for 15 years and his family still resides.

Active in bridging the academic and policy worlds, Joshua co-founded the Yale Journal of International Affairs, Young Professionals in Foreign Policy in New York, and the Project on Religion, Diplomacy, and International Relations at Princeton.

In addition to his numerous articles, briefs, and book projects, he has been published in a variety of outlets including the Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, International Affairs, International Herald Tribune, New Republic, Washington Quarterly, and Washington Times. Joshua is called upon often to offer commentary in international media outlets.

events/luncheons/namik-tan-07dec11/gallery

"Taking Action to Stop Hate" with Farah Anwar Pandith Special Representative to Muslim Communities and Hannah Rosenthal Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism

Luncheon Talk

Farah Pandith was appointed Special Representative to Muslim Communities in June 2009. Her office is responsible for executing Secretary Clinton’s vision for engagement with Muslims around the world on a people-to-people and organizational level. She reports directly to the Secretary of State.

Prior to this appointment, she was Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. In this role she was focused on Muslim communities in Europe where she was responsible for policy oversight for integration, democracy, and Islam in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. She also worked on issues relating to countering violent Islamic extremism.

Before joining the Department of State, she served as the Director for Middle East Regional Initiatives for the National Security Council. She was responsible for coordinating U.S. policy on “Muslim World” Outreach and the Broader Middle East North Africa initiative. She reported directly to the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy. Special Representative Pandith served on the staff of the National Security Council from December 2004 to February 2007.

Prior to joining the NSC, Special Representative Pandith was Chief of Staff for the Bureau for Asia and the Near East for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). She worked directly for the Assistant Administrator for the bureau responsible for more than $4 billion in programs throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and Asia -- including Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza/West Bank. In 2004, she spent two months in Kabul, Afghanistan.

From 1997 to 2003 Special Representative Pandith was Vice President of International Business for ML Strategies in Boston, Massachusetts. She received a Master’s degree from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where she specialized in International Security Studies, Islamic Civilizations and Southwest Asia, and International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. She concentrated on the insurgency in Kashmir and has spoken on the subject in international and domestic forums.

Prior to graduate school, Special Representative Pandith worked at USAID as the Special Assistant to the Director of Policy. She has been a consultant in both the public and non-profit sectors. Special Representative Pandith has served on several boards with a focus on international affairs including the World Affairs Council of Boston, the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs, and the British-American Project. She was a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Special Representative Pandith received an A.B. in Government and Psychology from Smith College, where she was president of the student body. She has served as a Trustee of alma maters Smith College and Milton Academy. She is currently a member of the Board of Overseers of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
She was born in Srinagar, Kashmir, India.

Hannah Rosenthal was sworn in as Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism on November 23, 2009. Sparked by the work and experience of her father, a rabbi and Holocaust survivor, and her own experience studying to become a rabbi, Hannah Rosenthal has led a life marked by activism and a passion for social justice.

Before joining the State Department, Ms. Rosenthal was Executive Director of the Chicago Foundation for Women, where she led one of the largest women's funds in the world. Prior to that, she was Executive Director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs for five years, where she worked on domestic and international policy for the organized Jewish community in North America.

Ms. Rosenthal served as Midwest regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton Administration. She was involved in community organizing, and the antiwar and civil rights movements in the 1960s.

Ms. Rosenthal attended graduate school for rabbinical studies at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and Los Angeles, and holds a bachelor’s degree in religion from the University of Wisconsin. Ms. Rosenthal has two grown daughters who are busy mending the world with their mom.

events/luncheons/Farah-Anwar-Pandith-22Nov11/galery{/gallery

Paul Monteiro serves as the liaison to Arab Americans, faith-based and secular belief communities and also assists in coordinating the White House Mentorship Program. He worked for then-Senator Obama in his Senate office in 2006 before joining the Obama for America campaign in Chicago as the national Deputy Director of Religious Affairs.

A graduate of the University of Maryland and the Howard University School of Law, he previously worked at the United States Supreme Court, two Washington, D.C. law firms, and spent a year teaching at a local public charter school.

President Barack Obama named the Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell director of the Department's Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on Dec. 13, 2010. The mission of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Education is to promote student achievement by connecting schools and community-based organizations, both secular and faith-based, as we build a culture of educational excellence. The center also works as a part of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Centers at 11 other agencies to more effectively serve Americans in need.

Girton-Mitchell brings more than 30 years' experience to the Department from her work as a teacher, legal counsel and minister.

A native of Indianapolis and the first in her family to go to college, Girton-Mitchell earned her bachelor`s degree in elementary education in 1970 from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., then taught elementary school for nine years in Indianapolis, where she also served for one year as president of the teachers' union. While teaching, she earned her master`s in elementary education from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

She earned her J.D. degree with honors from the Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1980, and worked for one year as a legislative assistant to former Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.). From 1981 to 1990, she served as legislative counsel to Sears Roebuck, and Co. in Washington, D.C., and, in 1991, she left Sears to serve for three years as director of government relations for the American Counseling Association.

In 1994, Girton-Mitchell was named associate executive officer for the National Council of Negro Women in Washington, where she worked closely with the council's president, Dorothy Height, to serve its nearly 4 million members.

In 1997, Mitsubishi Motors of America named her as its first director of diversity relations, a post she held for three years and during which time, she began her divinity studies at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

In 2000, Girton-Mitchell was named associate general secretary for justice and advocacy and director of the Washington office for the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. For eight years, she provided leadership on the council's public policy activities for its 35 member faith groups, which represent a wide spectrum of beliefs, from Protestant, Orthodox and Evangelical churches to historic African-American and Living Peace churches. The council represents 45 million persons in more than 100,000 congregations across the United States. For eight years, she ran its Washington office, which had a budget of $2 million and a staff of six.

In the midst of working full-time for the council, she earned her masters of divinity degree and was ordained on June 12, 2004, as a minister for the Metropolitan Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., where she continues to serve as a minister for stewardship and missions. She also dedicates time to Grace and Race Ministries, a local nonprofit organization which she began to encourage healthy conversations about race. In 2008, prior to joining the Department, she started her own consulting firm, Girton-Mitchell Associates, to assist churches and nonprofits in advocacy, leadership development and conflict resolution.

Girton-Mitchell is a life member of the National Council of Negro Women, the NAACP, and the Urban League. She is admitted to the bars of Illinois, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Supreme Court. Among her memberships are the National Bar Association, the Washington Bar Association, and Leadership Greater Washington, and, currently, she is vice chair of the Board of Governors for Wesley Theological Seminary.

A recipient of numerous awards, she has received the National Council of Negro Women Bethune Recognition Award for an Outstanding Woman in Ministry, the National Bar Association`s Presidential Award, and the Sagamore of the Wabash Award-the highest award given by the state of Indiana-and was inducted into the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr., International Board of Preachers.

Girton-Mitchell and her husband, James Mitchell, live in Silver Spring, Md.

events/luncheons/Paul-Monteiro-27Oct11/gallery

The book begins by discussing the life and legacy of each mystic master, and then move on to identify a principal theme in each of their teachings that has significant implications for addressing issues of religious diversity and interfaith dialogue. It will then proceed to its main objective: placing the mystical discourse of these two masters in conversation with one another for the purposes of articulating “conversation points” between the two discourses which might serve as “nodes” for a possible new matrix for Christian-Muslim dialogue.

The motivating premises of the book are three. First, because so much of Christian-Muslim dialogue gets “stuck” on irreconcilable theological propositions, a new matrix for the dialogue is necessary – ideally one that focuses on ways of looking at the cosmos that are rooted in distinctive and different, but nonetheless shared spiritual experiences. Second, many people in the world today—both Christians and Muslims—are becoming more disposed toward dialogue as a way of reducing conflict in our increasing number of “global villages.” One obstacle in advancing the dialogue, however, is the alienation of practitioners from the rich intellectual resources of their respective traditions which can be drawn upon to legitimize, support, and encourage dialogue. Third, if practiced with intelligence, sincerity, and care, dialogue and encounter with people of other faiths can significantly enrich the identity of the religious individual as he or she articulates, in a pluralist context, just what it means to be a Muslim, a Christian, or the adherent of any other religious tradition.

Syafaatun Almirzanah is a Professor of Islam and Middle Eastern Politics and Diplomacy at The University of Indonesia, Jakarta. Prof. Almirzanah is Founding Director of the La Convivencia Center for Human Rights and Religious Values. She is a faculty member of ICRS (Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies), an International Ph. D Program in interreligious Studies, at Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta. At the State Islamic University, Sunan kalijaga, Yogyakarta, she is a professor of Religious Studies. A board member of Interfidei Foundation and Central Asia Production Research, Chicago. She was a director of Academic Affairs, and a Chair of the Department of Comparative Religions at State Islamic University. A research coordinator for the Institute for Inter-faith Dialogue in Indonesia, INTERFIDEI, a visiting professor on Women and Islam at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, and a Visiting professor of Islamic Studies at Sanata Dharma Catholic University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She has a professional affililiation with American Academy of Religion, the Ibn ‘Arabi Society, and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, USA. She is currently a visiting professor at Georgetown University, The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Affairs in Washington, DC.

She received fellowships and grants from The Ford Foundation, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, McGill University, Canada, and The Bernardin Center, Chicago. An activist in interfaith dialogue nationally and internationally, Almirzanah specializes in Sufism, interfaith dialogue, and comparative mysticism. She stayed at a Coptic Catholic Seminary, Egypt during her research on Christian-Muslim Relations, an immersion experience with a non-Muslim tradition ourside her country. She visited many places for her research, and presented papers at numerous conferences on interfaith dialogue and human rights issues, locations include: Turkey, The Netherlands, Germany, Rome, Spain, Korea, Lebanon, Iran, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, France, and the USA. She is now doing her research on Muslim-Christian relations in the Netherlands and Indonesia, “Cross-cultural Perspectives” (A joint-research between PERSERTIA, PTHU, RU and VU, sponsored by KIA and PThU).

Almirzanah’s books include: When Mystics Masters Meet: Towards a New Matrix for Christian-Muslim Dialogu; Scriptural Hermeneutics; An Interfaith Discussion; What Should Non-Muslims Know about Islam. She is also an editor of the book on Hermeneutics: A Reader (with Sahiron Syamsuddin), Hermeneutics: Applications, and Curriculum: a Reader.

Almirzanah has been interviewed in The Chicago Tribune, WTTW (Chicago Tonight), US. Catholic Magazine, and she has written numerous articles in journals and newspapers. A native Indonesian, Central Java, she currently resides in Yogyakarta with her family.

Moderator

Prof. John L. Esposito, Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. University Professor as well as Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, John L. Esposito is Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. Esposito has served as consultant to the U.S. Department of State and other agencies, European and Asian governments and corporations, universities, and the media worldwide. A former President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, Vice Chair of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, and member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders, he is currently Vice President (2011) and President Elect (2012) of the American Academy of Religion and a member of the E. C. European Network of Experts on De-Radicalisation and the board of C-1 World Dialogue and an ambassador for the UN Alliance of Civilizations. Esposito is recipient of the American Academy of Religion’s Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion and of Pakistan’s Quaid-i-Azzam Award for Outstanding Contributions in Islamic Studies and the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Award for Outstanding Teaching. Esposito is Editor-in-Chief of Oxford Islamic Studies Online and Series Editor of The Oxford Library of Islamic Studies, Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (6 vols.); The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (4 vols.), The Oxford History of Islam, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, and The Islamic World: Past and Present (3 vols.). His more than 45 books and monographs include: Islamophobia and the Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century, The Future of Islam, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (with Dalia Mogahed), Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?, Islam and Politics; What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam, World Religions Today and Religion and Globalization (with D. Fasching and T. Lewis), Asian Islam in the 21st Century, Geography of Religion: Where God Lives, Where Pilgrims Walk (with S. Hitchcock); Islam: The Straight Path; Islam and Democracy and Makers of Contemporary Islam (with J. Voll); Modernizing Islam (with F. Burgat) Political Islam: Revolution, Radicalism or Reform?, Religion and Global Order (with M. Watson), Islam and Secularism in the Middle East (with A. Tamimi); Iran at the Crossroads (with R.K. Ramazani); Islam, Gender, and Social Change and Muslims on the Americanization Path and Daughters of Abraham (with Y. Haddad); and Women in Muslim Family Law. Esposito’s books and articles have been translated into more than 35 languages. Esposito’s interviews and articles with newspapers, magazines, and the media in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, The Guardian, The Times of London, CNN, ABC Nightline, CBS, NBC, and the BBC. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., he currently resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Dr. Jeanette P. Esposito.

events/luncheons/Syafaatun-Almirzanah-18Oct11/gallery