September General Meeting, 6:45pm at the Preston Ridge Campus of Collin College, 9700 Wade Blvd Frisco, Texas, Founders Hall, Shawnee Room F148.

Members Alicia Bergfeld and Amy Lawrence will be our highlighted speakers at the September 27^th meeting of TDWCC.  We look forward to hearing about their personal experiences living and working abroad.

Alicia Bergfeld attended graduate school for International Relations at Webster University in Geneva.  The fall of 2006 was an exciting time to be abroad because of the impact of the 2006 midterm elections. She interned at the International Council of Nurses, an international NGO, and attended numerous conferences at the UN and throughout the city.  One of the most lasting impressions she received was how much more closely people followed US politics compared to American citizens.

From 2007 to 2008, Amy Lawrence worked as the operations and communications manager for the USAID-funded Combating Violence Against Women and Children project in Cairo, Egypt. The program worked closely with Egypt’s National Council for Women to conduct a national survey on domestic and community violence against women. Working with the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, the project also focused on improving the juvenile justice system and create programs for the estimated 1 million street children living in Cairo. Prior to that, Amy spent three years working as the project manager for a $32 million USAID grant-making project for local NGOs to strengthen civil society in West Bank and Gaza. This 6 year project played a key role in the 2005 and 2006 Palestinian presidential, municipal, and legislative elections through a robust voter education program as well as establishing codes of conduct and election monitoring.