Washington, DC | www.adc.org | May 20th, 2014- The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-Women’s Empowerment Forum (WEF) would like to announce Stephenie Foster as a guest speaker for next week’s Arabesque event on Women’s Participation in Politics. The event will take place on Tuesday, May 27th at 7:00pm-9:00pm in the Cullen Room at Busboys and Poets on 5th & K St NW.
The event will showcase a 15 minute independent documentary, Madame Parliamentarian, which depicts women’s active participation in Lebanon’s political life and their lack of formal representation in Lebanon’s Parliament. The film explores the reasons behind this lack of representation and examines solutions adopted by other countries to increase women’s roles in politics. The film will be followed by a discussion led by the filmmaker, Rouane Itani, as well as Stephenie Foster, who is a specialist on women and public policy.
Rouane Itani is a Lebanese-American filmmaker based in Washington, DC, who began her media career in Beirut, Lebanon before moving to the United States. Being passionate and dedicated in documentary filmmaking, she further expanded and finished her education in the United States, where she graduated with an MA in Film and Video Producing. Itani runs Aflama LLC, a boutique media production company, on top of her many years of experience in creating corporate, documentary and educational video projects.
Our guest speaker, Stephenie Foster, is the Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Global Women’s Issues at the State Department. She also teaches courses on women and public policy at the American University in Washington, DC, and has over 25 years of experience in advancing women’s roles in public policy. She just recently completed a one year tour at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan and around the country, focusing on women and civil society while teaming up with organizations and individuals.
Some of her work in international programs and projects include: The Vital Voices Global Partnership, The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and The International Foundation for Election Systems. Stephenie also has broad experience in domestic government relations, serving as the Chief of Staff to two United States Senators: Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT). In addition, President Clinton appointed her as General Counsel of the U.S. General Services Administration.
Seats are still available to attend the event. Please refer to our Facebook page for more information.
To RSVP, please contact Dima Calnan at dcalnan@adc.org