HONOLULU (June 24, 2011) -- HONOLULU (June 24, 2011) -- Dr. Nancy Lewis, Director of the East-West Center’s Research Program, has been named president of the Pacific Science Association. Lewis was elected at the organization’s 22nd Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last week.

“I am deeply honored to have been elected president of the Pacific Science Association as the PSA begins charting the course towards its hundredth anniversary in 2020,” Lewis said.

Richard Magnus, Singaporean Representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, gives a keynote address.More than 65 human rights and international law professionals from 18 countries participated in the Asian International Justice Initiative’s 2011 Summer Institute in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, which focused on issues related to the rights of women and children in the Asia Pacific region.

HONOLULU (Aug. 15, 2011) – The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, has awarded the East-West Center $1,087,762 over three years to continue and expand several training and exchange programs for journalists. The award will fund the continuation of the Center’s Pakistan-U.S. Journalists’ Exchange program, which was held for the first time in April this year, as well as funding participation by Pakistani journalists in the Center’s existing multinational Jefferson Fellowships and Senior Journalists Seminar programs.

Under the overall theme of “Deepening Democracy through Media in Pakistan,” the objectives of the East-West Center project are to promote free, fair and responsible media in Pakistan to help the country cope with its political and developmental challenges and to bridge the gaps in understanding between the United States and Pakistan.

HONOLULU (Nov. 25, 2011) – The East-West Center is pleased to welcome the Henry Luce Foundation as a Gold Sponsor of the EWC’s 2012 International Media Conference, scheduled for June 22-24 in Seoul, South Korea. The conference theme is “Networked News: How New Media is Shaping Stories in Asia and the Pacific.”

The Foundation has awarded EWC a special grant of $40,000 to help alumni of the Center’s annual Korea-U.S. Journalists Exchange program attend the conference. The Henry Luce Foundation has been a primary sponsor of the exchange program since 2006.

Starting with the first event in Bangkok in 2008, East-West Center’s biennial media conference has grown into one of the premier journalism meetings in the Asia Pacific region, with the 2010 conference in Hong Kong drawing close to 350 participants from 26 nations and attracting worldwide press attention.

HONOLULU (May 4, 2012) – The East-West Center (EWC) has been awarded a contract for $458,276 from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to provide technical and financial support for the development and refinement of HIV/AIDS Incidence Estimation in the Spectrum software under the guidance of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV/AIDS Estimates, Modeling and Projection. Spectrum is a suite of policy models that provide policymakers with analytical tools to support decision making processes.

HONOLULU (May 30, 2012) – Internet information leader Google, telecom provider KT, auto manufacturer Hyundai, international relations insitution the Korea Foundation and the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre have joined the growing list of corporate and foundation sponsors of the East-West Center’s 2012 International Media Conference, scheduled for June 22-24 in Seoul, South Korea. The conference theme is “Networked News: How New Media is Shaping Stories in Asia and the Pacific.”

SEOUL (June 20, 2012) – Several hundred journalists and media experts from more than 100 news organizations in 25 countries will gather in Seoul, South Korea June 22-24 to discuss the latest information on the impact of new and social media on events and news coverage in Asia and the Pacific.

The conference on the theme of “Networked News: How New Media Is Shaping Stories in Asia and the Pacific” will be covered online at a special website, EastWestCenter.org/IMC 2012. Visit the site to see news reports and video of keynote addresses, real-time social media coverage, session summaries and more.

A number of the conference sessions are expected to be streamed live online. Twitter users can also follow live tweets from the conference through the hashtag: #NetNews.

Featured speakers and panelists include:

UHM SPAS Dean Edward Shultz to head EWC’s International Alumni Association Executive Board

HONOLULU (June 20, 2012) – Dr. Edward (Ned) Shultz, Dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies (SPAS) at University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) and Assistant Vice Chancellor for International Programs and Exchange, has been named the new president of the East-West Center’s Alumni Association Executive Board. On July 1, 2012, Shultz will succeed former UHM Asian Studies Program Graduate Chair, Dr. Ricardo Trimillos, who had served his term as president and will remain on the board as an ex-officio member.

HONOLULU (July 16, 2012) – An international delegation of election observers who monitored the July 7 national parliamentary elections in Timor Leste has issued a preliminary statement congratulating the people of the that country for “an open and spirited electoral process… that generated high voter interest.”

HONOLULU (July 19, 2012) – An international delegation of election observers supported by the U.S. Department of State and organized by the East-West Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP) monitored the recent month-long general elections in Papua New Guinea. The mission included election specialists, former government officials, academics and civil society representatives from Australia, the Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands and the United States. The delegation was headed by Dr. Gerard A. Finin, Co-Director of the PIDP.

HONOLULU (Oct. 11, 2012) -- The East-West Center has been awarded $173,000 in funding to study how key climate information spreads across different sectors and countries in the Pacific islands region.

With $148,000 in funding from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and $25,000 from the Department of Interior’s Pacific Islands Climate Science Center, researchers will use the upcoming release of a major Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment report as springboard for collecting data to analyze the flow of climate and fresh water information in Hawai‘i and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands.

By tracking information flows, key hubs and isolated groups using network analysis and statistical methods, the researchers plan to map out gaps in the communication and flow of climate information, allowing future projects to focus on areas with less active research and outreach.

HONOLULU (Nov. 2, 2012) – Eight journalists from various parts of Asia have begun the East-West Center’s special U.S. Presidential Election Reporting Seminar. On the 12-day tour immediately before, during and after the election, the journalists will visit Florida, Ohio and Washington, DC to gain inside perspectives on the American electoral system and the key issues involved in this year’s presidential contest.

HONOLULU (Nov. 8, 2012) -- For a number of years the East-West Center, with support from the U.S. Department of State, has fielded multinational election observation teams to learn about and offer suggestions for improving the ways in which elections are conducted in various Asia Pacific nations.

This year, for the first time, the Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program hosted a multinational group of election officials and journalists and during the 2012 U.S. presidential election. The program sought to provide participants with first-hand knowledge and experience of America’s national, state and local electoral systems through direct observation and interaction with a diverse range of individuals engaged in the electoral process.

The participants included:

HONOLULU (Nov. 14, 2012) – The priority application deadline for the East-West Center's 2013-14 Asia Pacific Leadership Program – considered the premier leadership education program in the Asia Pacific region – is Dec 1, 2012.

From August – December 2013, up to APLP 40 Fellows from around the globe will join regional specialists and leadership educators in a dynamic learning community at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii for this graduate certificate program combining the development of regional expertise with the enhancement of individual leadership capacity. All participants receive a fee-waiver fellowship valued at approximately $15,000.

HONOLULU (December 4, 2012)—The Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment (PIRCA) today released its first report, Climate Change and Pacific Islands: Indicators and Impacts (Island Press). The report highlights the findings of more than 100 scientists and other experts who assessed the state of knowledge about climate change and its impacts on the Hawaiian archipelago and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands. The report also examines the adaptive capacity of island communities in the region.

HONOLULU (Jan.16, 2013) — The Pacific Islands Climate Services Forum to be held next week in Suva, Fiji, will feature discussion of the recently released 2012 Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment (PIRCA) report, titled Climate Change and Pacific Islands: Indicators and Impacts.  The Forum provides an opportunity for dialogue between climate experts and decision makers, including resource and disaster risk managers and community planners, as well as government ministries and policy makers from across the region. PIRCA editors will present a summary of the report, which incorporates findings of the more than 100 scientists who assessed climate change impacts in Hawai‘i and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands.

HONOLULU (Feb. 12, 2013) -- More than 90 graduate students from 42 universities in 24 nations are set to gather at the East-West Center this week to present their research at the Center’s 12th annual International Graduate Student Conference. The interdisciplinary gathering, planned and organized by EWC students, is the largest of its kind worldwide. All conference sessions, excluding meals, are free and open to the public.

The three-day conference, which runs Feb. 14-16 at EWC’s Hawai‘i Imin International Conference Center, includes 24 panel sessions in a number of areas focusing on the Asia Pacific region and its interactions with the U.S. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, noted expert on U.S. political campaigns and media, will deliver the conference’s keynote address on Thurs. Feb. 14 at 4:30 p.m., on the topic of “The Deceptions, Distractions and Revelations of the 2012 U.S. Presidential Campaign."

HONOLULU (May 8, 2013) – The East-West Center has received a grant of $423,975 from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health as part of a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on “Realizing the Demographic Dividend for Africa.”

HONOLULU (Nov. 18, 2013) – The East-West Center’s Board of Governors has elected two new international members: Indian business leader Ratan N. Tata, who is returning to the board after serving several terms between 1993 and 2004, and first-time EWC board member Takeshi Niinami, CEO of Japan’s Lawson, Inc.

Newly elected boardmembers Ratan Tata (left) and Takeshi NiinamiEWC Board of Governors Chair Brian Tsujimura and the other board members, along with Center President Charles E. Morrison, extended a warm welcome to the new members, who were elected to three-year terms, and expressed their sincere gratitude to outgoing member Tarun Das.

Fundraising Board Also Welcomes Three New Members 

HONOLULU (Aug.19, 2014) – The Board of Directors of the East-West Center Foundation ­­- the Center’s community fundraising arm ­– has selected members Keethe Koyanagi and Shelley Wilson as the board’s new co-chairs. Koyanagi is senior vice president of the Credit Administration Division at First Hawaiian Bank, and Wilson is president of president of Wilson Homecare. Their one-year term as co-chairs began on Aug. 1.

HONOLULU (May 5, 2015) -- The East-West Center has been awarded funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to continue to serve as the lead institution in the Pacific Regional Integrated Science and Assessment (RISA) program, which is designed to help island and coastal communities cope with the effects of climate change. This is the second full program award the Center has received from NOAA, and marks the program’s transition into a new phase.

The $4,099,785 NOAA grant will be shared over a five-year period by a variety of partners in the Pacific RISA program (see list below). The program was established in 2003 and is one of 11 regional RISA programs supported by NOAA across the U.S. The region covered by the Pacific program includes Hawai‘i, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau and American Samoa.

HONOLULU (Sept. 3, 2015) – The East-West Center has received a $45,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to launch a series of agenda-setting workshops focusing on the impact of Asia Pacific trade agreements on trade and innovation in the region.

The East-West Center New Challenges for Trade and Innovation Workshop series, headed by EWC Senior Fellows Dieter Ernst and Michael Plummer, will bring together trade economists and experts on innovation, intellectual property rights, competition law, technical standards, and industrial development from the U.S., Asia and Europe.

HONOLULU (Sept. 16, 2015) -- At a gala dinner celebration last night with  550 people in attendance, the East-West center celebrated its 55^th year and honored master traditional navigator Nainoa Thompson with the Center’s Asia Pacific Community Building Award.

“If you’re building an Asia Pacific community, the inspiration comes from an Asia Pacific community, and that’s what we are in Hawai‘i,” said East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison. “There are a lot of inspiring examples in Hawai‘i, and we’re honoring one of the most inspirational tonight, Nainoa Thompson – a great inspiration to our students, a great inspiration to our state, a great inspiration to our island region, the Asia Pacific region and now to the world

Longtime Taiwan IBM executive Gary S.H. Lin donates $300,000
to support EWC student scholarships and arts programs.

HONOLULU (March 14, 2016) – The East-West Center Foundation has received its largest single donation ever from a degree fellow alumnus. Longtime Taiwan IBM executive Gary S.H. Lin, who was a student at the Center in the 1960s, has donated $300,000 to support EWC student scholarships and arts programs. $250,000 of Lin’s gift will establish a scholarship fund to provide awards for one or more students from Taiwan who have an outstanding academic record and financial need, while the remaining $50,000 will provide support for Taiwan-related exhibitions or performances by the East-West Center Arts Program.

WASHINGTON, D.C.(May 11, 2016) - The Asia Matters for America initiative of the East-West Center today launched a new online resource, Asia Reacts, which tracks Asia’s reactions to important developments in U.S.–Asia relations during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The effort will monitor responses of Asian governments, media, and experts.