Young leaders from 13 Pacific nations participating
in program supported by Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry

HONOLULU (Sept. 9, 2013) -- The East-West Center has welcomed 26 participants from 13 island nations to the 2014 Pacific Islands Leadership Program with Taiwan.

HONOLULU (Sept. 26, 2014) – The East-West Center is pleased to announce that former Harvard Senior Associate Dean Paul Keenan has joined Center as Interim Director of Development. His part-time appointment is for an initial period of six months, beginning Sept. 23.

“Paul has proven relationship development skills, built over his 25 years of high-level experience in strategy development, marketing and organizational behavior and design,” said East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison. “We are greatly looking forward to his contributions to our strategic planning process and working with him to increase fundraising at the Center.”   

HONOLULU (Sept. 25, 2014) – – Nicholas Manring, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, has joined the East-West Center as Diplomat-in-Residence. He will be posted at the Center until June 2015.

HONOLULU (July 13, 2015) - The Hawaii, USA-based East-West Center has been conducting three separate programs in Myanmar this summer designed to enrich English-language skills for local teachers and journalists. The programs include a media workshop focusing on journalist instruction through English news analysis, a teacher exchange designed to strengthen English instruction, and long-term teacher residencies through the Center-administrated Brunei-U.S. English Enrichment Program for ASEAN.

HONOLULU (August 13, 2015) – Nearly 100 student fellows from 40 countries and territories have arrived in Hawaii to participate in East-West Center programs this fall. The new graduate students and leadership program participants join a community of more than 110 continuing EWC participants in a diverse residential community on the East-West Center campus.

The new student fellows are participating in the EWC’s Community Building Institute, a two-week intensive activity that introduces the international students to Hawaii’s culture and major issues affecting the Asia Pacific region.

HONOLULU (Aug. 18, 2015) – Thanks to more than $84,000 in funding from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the East-West Center’s 2015 Senior Journalists Seminar, which seeks to improve relations between the U.S. and Muslim regions, will include more Middle Eastern journalists and, for the first time, arts and culture reporters.

HONOLULU (Oct. 2, 2015) – – Donald Sheehan, a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, has joined the East-West Center as Diplomat-in-Residence. He will be posted at the Center until June 2016.

EWC Okinawan projects specialist Bob Nakasone
establishes $50,000 endowment in parents’ honor

HONOLULU (August 10, 2016) – Nearly 70 student fellows from 38 countries and territories have arrived in Hawai‘i to begin participating in East-West Center programs this fall. Later in the month, 37 additional participants will begin the Center’s Asia Pacific and Pacific Islands certificate leadership programs.

(View a photo gallery of the Aloha Ceremony welcoming the new participants.)

HONOLULU (September 14, 2016) -- The Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment (PIRCA) has launched its new website at PIRCA.org.  The website provides a wealth of information and resources about climate change in Hawai‘i and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI).

Dr. Richard R. Vuylsteke is an EWC alumnus who has run American Chambers of Commerce in Hong Kong and Taipei

HONOLULU (Jan. 5, 2017) – The East-West Center has welcomed its new President, Dr. Richard R. Vuylsteke, a former EWC grantee and staff member who rejoins the Center after several decades living in Asia and serving most recently as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

Former Punahou President is chosen by fellow board members to head EWC’s governing body; Bank of Hawai‘i’s Peter Ho named Vice Chair 

HONOLULU (Oct. 1, 2019) – Members of the East-West Center’s Board of Governors have elected board member and former Punahou School President Dr. James K. Scott to serve as the board’s new chairman. At a meeting Sept. 30, the board named Scott to succeed attorney Richard Turbin, who had served his maximum term as chairman but remains on the board as a member.

HONOLULU (July 14, 2017) – Researchers with the Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (Pacific RISA) program housed at the East-West Center have released the latest in a series of “Climate Matters” ‘documoment’ videos. The new seven-minute video, titled “Climate Matters for Ridge to Reef Ecosystems,” focuses on climate change impacts in West Maui forest watersheds and reef ecosystems. The video features interviews with two Pacific RISA stakeholders from the Maui Future Climate Scenarios project, each representing part of the ridge-to-reef climate and ecosystem connection.

HONOLULU (Sept. 7, 2017) –  Peggy Petrovich, a 17-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, has joined the East-West Center as Diplomat-in-Residence. She will be posted at the Center until June 2018.

HONOLULU - (Aug 16, 2017) -- The East-West Center has welcomed 27 emerging leaders from 10 Pacific island nations to this year’s Pacific Islands Leadership Program with Taiwan, or PILP. The participants will spend close to two months in Honolulu, engaging in experiential learning exercises on such topics as applied leadership skills, future scenario planning, social entrepreneurship and risk analysis, climate change and environmental stewardship, international relations, and public health. Then they will travel to Taipei for a month of field study in at the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs.

HONOLULU (Nov. 9, 2017) -- To mark this month’s International Education Week, more than a hundred 3^rd - 5^th graders from three O‘ahu public elementary schools visited the East-West Center today to learn about global citizenship and participate in international cultural activities.

View a photo gallery of images from the event.

HONOLULU (January 19, 2018) – The East-West Center in Honolulu Hawai‘i has just published a report on the findings of the inaugural Women20 for the G20 Asia Pacific Dialogue, which was held at the Center in June. The 20-page report expands on initial policy recommendations that the participants released soon after the meeting to help the G20 address several of the most pressing areas of ongoing disparity in women’s economic status throughout the Asia Pacific region and the world.

Findings from the report will be highlighted at several upcoming international meetings on women’s empowerment:

HONOLULU (May 4, 2018) -- The East-West Center’s Board of Governors has unanimously approved a forward-looking plan to substantially recast and rejuvenate the Center’s longstanding Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP).

HONOLULU (July 24, 2018) – Hundreds of scholars, officials, educators and business leaders from dozens of countries will be attending the East-West Center/EWC Association’s major international alumni conference, to be held August 23-25, 2018, at the Lotte Hotel Seoul.

WASHINGTON, DC (Aug. 27, 2018) -– The East-West Center and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the United States have now released the newest, updated versions of the Korea Matters for America/America Matters for Korea publication and website. The booklet and corresponding state and congressional district one-page connections summaries can be accessed and downloaded online at: https://AsiaMattersforAmerica.org/Korea.

HONOLULU (October 31, 2018) -- East-West Center Distinguished Alumnus Dr. Hao Ping, who is also leader of the Center’s Beijing alumni chapter, was recently named president of Peking University, China’s premier institution of higher learning. He previously served as party secretary of the university – often referred to as the “Harvard of China” – as well as a national vice minister of education.

Launch Event on Sidelines of Last Week's East Asia Summit in Singapore Marks 'Asia Matters' Data Initiative's 10th Anniversary

SINGAPORE (November 20, 2018) – At a conference on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Singapore last week, the East-West Center and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, with the support of the US Department of State, launched the East-West Center’s newly updated Asia Matters for America/America Matters for Asia publication, website, and one-page state summaries highlighting the mutual business, diplomatic, security, and cultural engagement between the US and the Indo-Pacific region.

HONOLULU (November 23, 2018) – Strained freshwater supplies, damaged and compromised coastal infrastructure, coral reef death, and greater stresses on native biodiversity and species are among the major concerns and challenges detailed in the Hawai‘i-Pacific Islands chapter of the fourth official US National Climate Assessment, released today. In economic terms, the impacts add up to billions of dollars.

The chapter on Hawai‘i and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands appears in Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, the most significant US report to assess the effects of climate change on the US economy and communities. The assessment finds that early action to address these impacts can lower economic, environmental, social, and cultural costs and could help to prevent conflict or displacement from lands and resources.

Previous scholarship recipients from throughout the Pacific mark the program's 25th year with a conference on professional opportunities

FIJI (Dec. 10, 2018) – Over this past weekend, 29 alumni from the US South Pacific Scholarship Program (USSP) attended a conference in Fiji titled ‘Connecting the Dots: Using your USSP Experience as a Path to Professional Opportunities.’ The conference held at the Outrigger Resort in Sigatoka gathered alumni from eight of the 11 countries where scholarships are awarded. The participants learned from each other’s experiences and shared how their experiences in the United States have changed their lives and helped their communities.

HONOLULU (Feb. 3, 2020) -- The East-West Center has again been ranked #4 in a University of Pennsylvania institute’s 2019 list of best government-affiliated think tanks worldwide, the same ranking the Center received in last year’s list. It is notable that the only three institutions ranked higher than EWC are affiliated with such large organizations as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and US Congressional Research Service. In addition, the Center ranked ninth in the Best Regional Studies (Free Standing) category.

HONOLULU (May 30, 2019) -- The East-West Center is pleased to welcome Ambassador Karena Lyons, the former New Zealand Ambassador to the nations of Micronesia and Consul General for Hawai‘i, as the Center’s new Vice President, Executive Director of Research, and Director (designate) of the Pacific Islands Development Program.

HONOLULU (June 13, 2019) -- East-West Center alumnus David R. Stilwell was confirmed by 94-3 vote of the U.S. Senate today as the new U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Stilwell, a retired Air Force Brigadier General, received his master’s degree in Asian studies as an EWC grantee in the 1980s and later was an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Center.

HONOLULU (Aug. 6, 2019) – Juan “Jay” Avecilla, a 16-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, has joined the East-West Center as Diplomat-in-Residence. He will be posted at the Center until June 2020.

Prior to his arrival in Honolulu, Mr. Avecilla served as Management Officer in the U.S. Consulate General in Milan, Italy. Previously, he has served in various management positions at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan and in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs in Washington, D.C.  His other overseas assignments included tours as Consular/Management Officer in Fukuoka, Japan, Consular Officer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Economic Officer in Hanoi, Vietnam.    

HONOLULU (Feb. 7, 2020) – The East-West Center has been awarded a five-year grant totaling $50,000 from the Fish Family Foundation in support of the Center’s Changing Faces Women’s Leadership Seminar and #galswithLEI Forum, which collectively seek to enhance women’s leadership skills and entrepreneurial capacity; experientially explore innovative entrepreneurship; build a sense of self-efficacy; and expand national and regional networks.

As a result of the Fish Family Foundation’s funding, the Changing Faces Seminar will now be able to include female business or social entrepreneurs from Japan each year until 2024. The funding will also substantially increase the Center’s ability to include mainland and international speakers in the associated #galswithLEI Forum.

HONOLULU (Feb 25, 2020) -- The East-West Center has rolled out a major update of its affiliated Pacific Islands Development Program, or PIDP, with the launch yesterday of the program’s new website at PIDP.EastWestCenter.org. The new site highlights refocused priorities and new projects following recent user surveys and strategy dialogues with Pacific Islands leaders and stakeholders.