Parents' Weekend Speaker
Thursday, April 24, 2008
7-8 pm Wanamaker Hall

Five Years in Iraq: How Did We Get There, and Where Do We Go from Here

Janessa Gans graduated from Principia College in 1998 and served as a U. S. official in Baghdad for nearly two years. She also studied Arabic in the West Bank and founded a non-governmental organization called The Euphrates Institute whose purpose is to build bridges between the Middle East and the West. In recent weeks, an LA Times op-ed piece about Blackwater USA generated interviews for Gans with a number of international media organizations including CNN, CBS, NPR, Democracy Now, and Radio Netherlands. In addition to serving as a visiting faculty member at Principia College, Gans is currently a consultant to the United States State Department on Iraq programs. Her talk will focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and draw from her personal experiences in the West Bank.