The Global Citizen - Global Viewpoint
At a time when the lives of many have been dramatically disrupted and work, education, and society’s functions are in a state of constant transition, this new series from ThinkND will explore this point in history and how the work happening on Notre Dame’s campus and beyond relates to and impacts the United States and the world at large. The Global Citizen Virtual events will be on the following Thursdays:
- October 1, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern: Global Viewpoint
Brian Brisson '85
Brian Brisson ’85 recently retired from the Foreign Service after completing a five-year term as the Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at U.S. Embassy in Mexico City in July 2020. Brian’s primary role was coordinating broad commercial engagement to advance U.S. policy, advocacy, and trade promotion goals, as well as supporting U.S. firms operating in Mexico and Mexican firms investing in the United States. Previously, Brian served as the Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Brasília, Brazil, and the Regional Director for the Western Hemisphere in the International Trade Administration in Washington. His other diplomatic assignments have included serving as the Regional Commercial Counselor for Argentina and Uruguay in Buenos Aires, the Director of the U.S. Commercial Center in São Paulo, Brazil, and the Regional Commercial Attaché for Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Brian Brisson is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Michigan. He speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese and currently serves on the University of Notre Dame’s Latin America and Caribbean Advisory Council.
Watch another recent event with Brian Brisson ’85 at John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University: Covid-19 Supply Chain Challenges in Mexico and Latin America: The Perspective from Mexico
Dr. David Gaus '84
Dr. David Gaus is the founder of Andean Health & Development and has served as its Chief Executive Officer since 1994. David grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and attended Notre Dame where he received an accounting degree in 1984. After a soul-searching conversation with then University President, Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, David traveled to Ecuador where he spent two years volunteering at an orphanage.
He returned to the U.S. where, with the assistance of Fr. Hesburgh and the famous columnist Ann Landers, David re-enrolled at Notre Dame to complete his pre-med studies and then enrolled in Tulane Medical School. In 1992, David earned his M.D. and Master’s in Public Health & Tropical Medicine from Tulane.
In 1996, David and Fr. Hesburgh started AHD to provide self-sustaining, comprehensive health care to the rural poor. Their pilot project was a hospital in the underserved community of Pedro Vicente Maldonado (PVM). The hospital opened in 2000, and by 2007, was financially self-sustaining. Hospital PVM provides high-quality care to an extended community of 80,000 and is a training ground for physicians and other leaders in the local community. A second teaching hospital and clinic, Hesburgh Hospital, opened in Santo Domingo, Ecuador in 2014 and achieved self-sustainability in 2018. Both hospitals have public-private partnerships with the government of Ecuador and its social security system. David Gaus and AHD have now expanded this successful hospital and training model to another community in Ecuador, called Santo Domingo. David and his family live in Quito, Ecuador.
“A global citizen embraces the uncertainty of life. Finding and living a passion requires a calculated leap of faith amidst that uncertainty.”
Dr. David Gaus
Learn more about Dr. David Gaus’s work:
- Video: Andean Health & Development: A 20 Year Retrospective
- Video: Andean Health & Development
- Video: Dr. David Gaus ‘84, speaks as part of the Alumni Association’s Fr. Ted Said Speaker Series during Reunion 2019 – Fr. Ted Said… Civil & Human Rights: Dr. David Gaus ’84
Kagwiria Mbogori LLM '97
Kagwiria Mbogori is immediate former the Chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR). She has broad work experience at the national and regional level. At the helm of the Commission she provided strategic leadership for the implementation of the Commission’s s strategic direction and programming, that focused on the promotion of a culture of respect for human rights in Kenya.
Kagwiria is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and holds a Masters of Law from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana majoring in International Human Rights Law (LL.M). She is a Law Graduate from the University of Nairobi (LL.B) and holds a post graduate Diploma from the Kenya School of Law.
Prior to joining KNCHR, Kagwiria served for a decade in the United Nations system in several positions. In the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as the Chief Technical Advisor for the Judiciary of South Sudan form 2013-2014; the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) from 2007 to 2013 in a number of capacities in the human rights and rule of law sectors. Kagwiria was also the first Country Program Manager of UNIFEM in Liberia and had the opportunity to establish its presence from 2004 to 2006.
At the national scene, she served as the Executive Director of the Kenya Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya) form 1998-2003 and as Senior Programmes Officer/Ag. Executive Director in the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya) from 1994-1998. Inspired by the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Austria in 1993, and heeding the clarion call “Women’s Rights are Human Rights”, FIDA Kenya established the first formal program to combat gender-based violence in the country. Kagwiria was privileged to head this program.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8, Bible (NIV)
Ray Offenheiser '71 (Moderator)
Ray Offenheiser ’71 serves as the William J. Pulte Director and Keough School Associate Professor of the Practice. He teaches graduate and undergraduate students in the Keough School of Global Affairs, where he leads a course on the Foundations of Sustainable Development. Prior to joining Notre Dame in August 2017, Offenheiser was the president of Oxfam America – a Boston-based international relief and development agency and the U.S. affiliate of Oxfam International – for more than 20 years. His research interests and areas of expertise include poverty alleviation, human rights, United States foreign policy, and international development. He has been a frequent commentator with U.S. and international media on these and other subjects.
Listen in as Ray Offenheiser and guests discuss current humanitarian issues around the globe:
Ray Offenheiser at Cornell University on five areas that are fundamental to human existence: “The Way Forward” Keynote at Global Grand Challenges Symposium
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Featured Speakers:
- Brian Brisson ’85, former Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at U.S. Embassy in Mexico City
- Dr. David Gaus, Founder and CEO of Andean Health & Development
- Kagwiria Mbogori, former the Chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights
- Ray Offenheiser, William J. Pulte Director and Professor of the Practice, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame