Presenter: Virginia Prescott

Session topic to be announced.

http://info.nhpr.org/wordofmouth

Prior to joining NHPR, Virginia Prescott was editor and producer for the nationally syndicated programs On Point and Here & Now, produced at WBUR in Boston. Virginia grew up in New Hampshire, but began her radio career at WWOZ Radio in New Orleans. She moved to New York City and worked for the team behind NPR’s Peabody Award-winning Jazz from Lincoln Center series with Ed Bradley. Virginia then joined WNYC to launch the station’s website and oversee all its interactive media sites.

Throughout her radio career, Virginia helped set up independent radio stations in developing regions in southern and West Africa. She has also trained journalists in post-conflict zones from Sierra Leone to the former Yugoslavia. She was awarded a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University where she studied how broadcast media could spark dialogue and build community across terrestrial borders.

Roundtable discussion recorded at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.  As James Fabiano noted, the students in the group were around 7 years old when the war in Afghanistan began and we're still in the same situation. The panel represents different aspects of this very complex issue and where it's headed.

The four panelists of the Afghanistan seminar were Lt. Col Brian Ruhm, Professor Alynna Lyon, Rachel Williams, and James Schmill.

• Alynna J. Lyon, (Ph.D. University of South Carolina, 1999) taught at UNH for 7 years. Her research focuses on political violence, peacekeeping, and America Foreign Policy.
• Lt. Col Brian C. Ruhm, Commander of the Air Force ROTC at UNH. was deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan from June to November 2005 as a member of the Office of Security and Cooperation to support Operation Enduring Freedom.
• Rachel Williams is a 3rd-generation peace activist who travels frequently to Pakistan where she spearheads an Adopt-A-School program. She works out of Boston with an NGO in Afghanistan, the United for Justice with Peace Afghanistan-Pakistan Task Force, which works with women and women’s rights. 
• James Schmill is a veteran of the Afghanistan War and is opposed to the war.