Washington, DC – Dialogue on Diversity partners with the American Islamic Congress in presenting its very timely 2010 Public Policy Forum, set for Friday, March 12 at the GWU Marvin Center, exploring  salient public policy issues,  with a special segment exploring the condition of women world-wide in observation of Women’s History Month, celebrated annually in March.  Dialogue on Diversity is a non-profit educational organization fostering constructive dialogue and interchange among the diverse ethnic and cultural communities of the Americas. 

The America Islamic Congress, founded in 2001, seeks to build understanding among the U.S. Muslim population and the large Jewish and Christian religious communities of the country, all of which share a common history in their several variants of the Abrahamic faith tradition.  In particular it is the AIC’s mission, in seminars and conferences presented in Washington and around the country, to rebut the frequently encountered image of Islam as essentially an instrument of terrorism and intolerance. AIC’s motto is:  “We are Passionate about Moderation!”  The Dialogue has collaborated with AIC in previous Forums and is proud to partner with them in the 2010 Public Policy program.  

Where: Marvin Center, 800 Twenty First Street, N.W.,GWU, Washington, D.C.

When:   Friday, March 12, 2010,  1:30  - 5:00 p.m.  Reception: 5:00 – 6:30

Who Should Attend:  Women Entrepreneurs and Professionals, Students and Congressional staff, Civil Society staff, interested citizens, friends of Dialogue on Diversity and AIC.

In this year’s Forum agenda two basic topic areas dominate: each focuses on the badly sagging state of the country’s human infrastructure.  First, the focus is directed to the deficiencies of the educational system in locality after locality through all regions.  Second is the languishing of the vast repertory of human skills through the persisting underemployment of labor (as well as other resources) – the repeatedly inflicted damage, a wasteland of unredeemed loss, produced by the periodic dips in economic activity that have persistently plagued modern industrial society. 

• The Forum opens with a discussion of the condition of women around the world.  Zainab al-Suwaij of the AIC reviews the situation of women in the Middle East.  Esther Aguilera, head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, describes the emergence of leadership cadres among the population of smart and energetic Latinas in the U.S., while Ma. Cristina Caballero of Dialogue on Diversity assesses the condition of women in the Americas.
• This portion of the agenda is capped by the appearance of Ms. Harriet Fulbright, president of the J. William and Hariett Fulbrigtht Center in Washington,  an organization dedicated to the ideals of the much revered late Sen. Fulbright. Ms. Fulbright describes the far-flung work of the Center in its creative educational efforts fostering the conditions for a long-run era of peace around the world.
• Heidi Hartmann, the famously shrewd analyst of women’s economic lot in American society, and head of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, holds forth on the strategies for women as they strive to emerge from the economic hardships of the last two years, and on their ability to power recovery in the economy as a whole in the face of a lingering slowdown.
• In a discussion of the American educational system and its woes, attention is centered on the continuing gap in the educational efforts -- now sadly wanting in intensity, financing, and targeting -- directed to the crucial years of early childhood – the “treasures in small packages” ages 2 to 5,  the period when malleable minds can be either sharpened or blighted. The environment of the child’s household and, if that is wanting in richness, the nurture of outside educational efforts of the most intense and pervasive (and costly) kind, can rescue a generation.

There is no fee for the 2010 Forum.  

A  Reception follows, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.

Registration at the Web-site:  www.dialogueondiversity.org