Board Members after swearing in by Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer
(l to r: Betty F. Bumpers, Barbara W. Snelling, Justice Stephen G. Breyer,
Holly J. Burkhalter, Seymour Martin Lipset, Shibley Telhami, Marc E. Leland)

The U.S. Institute of Peace recently welcomed nine new or reconfirmed members to its board of directors. New board members include Betty F. Bumpers, Holly J. Burkhalter, Marc E. Leland, Mora L. McLean, María Otero, Barbara W. Snelling, and Shibley Telhami. Currently serving board members Seymour Martin Lipset, Hazel professor of public policy at George Mason University, and Harriet Zimmerman, vice president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee were also reconfirmed for a second four-year term.

The current ex officio board members are Vice Admiral Paul G. Gaffney II, president of the National Defense University, a continuing member who has served on the board since July 2000, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. By law, the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and president of the National Defense University serve on the Institute's board of directors as ex-officio members. These ex-officio members may also designate certain other officials from their organizations to serve in their place on the Institute's board.

At its first meeting on January 18, the board voted unanimously to extend the term as chair of Chester A. Crocker, James R. Schlesinger professor of strategic studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. The board also voted unanimously to appoint Lipset as the new vice chair. Institute president Richard H. Solomon continues as a nonvoting member of the board.

New Board Member Biographies

Betty F. Bumpers is founder and president of Peace Links, Washington, D.C., organized in 1982 to involve mainstream, grassroots citizens in activities that promote alternatives to violence. During her husband's tenure as governor of Arkansas, Bumpers was the leader of a successful immunization program for children, later adopted by governor's wives from other states, including Rosalynn Carter. In 1991, Bumpers and Carter founded Every Child by Two to promote early childhood immunization. Bumpers has received many awards, including the Distinguished Citizen Award from the National Peace Foundation and the Woman Who Makes a Difference Award from the International Woman's Forum in Boston. A former art teacher, Bumpers studied at Iowa State University, the University of Arkansas, and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. She holds honorary doctorate of law degrees from Hendrix College and the University of Arkansas and an honorary doctor of humane letters from the University of Massachusetts.

Holly J. Burkhalter has served as advocacy director of Physicians for Human Rights in Washington, D.C., since 1997. The organization specializes in medical, scientific, and forensic investigations of violations of internationally recognized human rights. In 1983-97, she was advocacy director of Human Rights Watch and director of its Washington office. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the advisory committees of Mental Disability Rights International and the International Justice Mission. She holds a bachelor's degree from Iowa State University.

Paul G. Gaffney II, a vice admiral in the U.S. Navy, is president of the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, D.C., and an ex officio member of the board. Prior to assuming his duties at NDU, Gaffney served as chief of naval research with additional duties as director of test and evaluation and technology requirements in the office of the chief of naval operations and deputy commandant (science and technology), headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps. Gaffney's career spans three decades and includes duty at sea, overseas, and ashore in executive and command positions.

Gaffney is a 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He received a master's in ocean engineering from Catholic University and an MBA from Jacksonville University. His awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit (four awards), Bronze Star (with "V"), and the Naval War College's J. William Middendorf Prize for Strategic Research.

Marc E. Leland is president of Marc E. Leland & Associates, Arlington, Va., an investment management firm. In 1981-84, he served as assistant secretary of the treasury for international affairs. In 1978-81, he was a partner in the law firm of Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn in London, England, and in 1972-74, a partner in Cerf, Robinson & Leland. He was senior adviser to the Mutual Balanced Force Reductions Negotiations in Vienna, Austria, in 1976-78, and general counsel to the Peace Corps and Action in 1970-2. Leland was a faculty fellow in foreign and comparative law at Harvard Law School in 1968-70 and a Ford Foundation fellow at the Institute of Comparative Law in Paris, France, in 1963-64. He holds a bachelor's from Harvard University, a master's from St. John's College at Oxford, and a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley Law School.

Mora L. McLean is president of the Africa-America Institute (AAI), New York, N.Y., a 45-year old nonprofit organization working on Africa-America relations. AAI fosters development in Africa through education and training, promotes educational and cultural exchange, and informs policy dialogue and mutually beneficial trade investment ties between Americans and Africans. Previously, McLean served as deputy director for Africa and Middle East programs at the Ford Foundation. She spent five years in the foundation's office in Lagos, Nigeria, first as assistant representative for West Africa and then as representative. McLean holds a bachelor's degree in African studies from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.

María Otero is president and CEO of ACCION International, Somerville, Mass., a nonprofit umbrella organization for a network of microlending institutions that fight poverty in the Americas by making loans to poor and low-income people. She joined ACCION in 1986 as director of its microlending program in Honduras and served as executive vice president in 1992-2000. She has served as an adviser to the World Bank's Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest and is chair of the MicroFinance Network and chair of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation. Otero is the author of numerous monographs and articles and co-editor of The New World of Microenterprise Finance (1994).

A native of La Paz, Bolivia, Otero holds a master's in literature from the University of Maryland and a master's in economic development and international studies from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.

Barbara W. Snelling of Shelburne, Vermont, is a state senator for the Chittenden district of Vermont. She served as Vermont's lieutenant governor in 1992-96. Formerly, she was president and owner of Snelling and Kolb, Inc., a firm that consulted to not-for-profit corporations. Before that she was vice president for development and external affairs at the University of Vermont. She also has served on Vermont's State Board of Education and the Vermont Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Commission, and as chair of the Shelburne School Board, president of United Way of Chittenden County, founding member of the Vermont Community Foundation, trustee of Radcliffe College, and chair of the Chittenden Corporation. Snelling received a bachelor's degree magna cum laude from Radcliffe College and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She also received an honorary doctor of public service degree from Norwich University.

Shibley Telhami holds the Anwar Sadat chair for peace and development at the University of Maryland. Telhami, a scholar of international communal conflict, political and economic development, and the demographic aspects of international politics, teaches in the university's Department of Government and Politics. Before joining the faculty, Telhami taught at Cornell University and served as director of its Near Eastern Studies Program. He has been a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and is currently a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of numerous articles and several books on international politics and Middle Eastern affairs. Telhami served as adviser to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations during the Iraq-Kuwait crisis in 1990-91, and was on the staff of U.S. Representative Lee Hamilton. Telhami received his doctorate in political science at the University of California at Berkeley.

The United States Institute of Peace is an independent, nonpartisan federal institution created by Congress to promote research, education, and training on the peaceful management and resolution of international conflicts. Established in 1984, the Institute meets its congressional mandate through an array of programs, including research grants, fellowships, professional training, education programs from high school through graduate school, conferences and workshops, library services, and publications. The Institute's Board of Directors is appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate.

Chairman of the Board: Chester A. Crocker

Vice Chairman: Seymour Martin Lipset

President: Richard H. Solomon

Executive Vice President: Harriet Hentges

Vice President: Charles Nelson