Science Diplomacy in International Organizations

Bill Hunter is an experiential educator who has worked in a variety of internationally focused capacities at Lehigh University for 23 years. He is the founder and Director of the Lehigh University / United Nations Partnership and is also the Director of the Office of Fellowship Advising. Under his leadership, Lehigh became the 6^th university in the world to attain United Nations Non-Governmental Organizations certification, and he developed the world’s first NGO Youth Representative program for the United Nations.  The creator of more than 800 internationally focused educational, cultural and social programs for the Lehigh community, Dr. Hunter also recently completed a two-year term as an elected Director of the UN’s NGO Executive Committee. In 2021, the UN Partnership received the Andrew Heiskell Award, which recognizes the most outstanding initiatives that are being conducted in international higher education by Institute of International Education Network member universities and colleges. Dr. Hunter earned his Ed.D. from Lehigh University in Educational Leadership. His dissertation, “Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes and Experiences Necessary to Become Globally Competent,” has been cited in many of the world’s top international education journals, magazines and websites.

Kat Kuai is the innovation specialist at the UN Development Coordination Office, Policy and Programming Branch. Her work focuses on supporting the institutional, policy, cultural and capability shifts toward a UN Development System that is more fit for purpose in the 21^st C.,  specifically the Secretary-General’s vision of a Quintet of Change through innovation and digital transformation, behavioral science, data, strategic foresight, and results orientation. Her background includes working with the global open data, open gov and civic tech movements. She has worked in both conflict and development country contexts, specializing in natural resource governance and resource economics. In addition to contributing to numerous “innovation labs” in her career, she is also proud to have worked in a “real” microbiology research laboratory on exciting new strains of thermophilic bacteria.

Jan Lüdert is Head of Programs at the German Center for Research and Innovation (DWIH) New York. Jan earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of British Columbia (UBC). He holds Harvard Kennedy’s School Public Leadership Credential; a First-Class Honors MA in International Relations from the Australian National University; and a BA in Public Policy from Hamburg University for Economics and Politics. He previously served as Associate Professor at City University of Seattle where he was the inaugural Director of Curriculum and Instruction. He held positions as Visiting Research Scholar at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at City University of New York's Graduate Center as well as Research Associate with the DFG 'Dynamics of Security' project at Philipps Marburg University. He is an alumnus of Seattle's World Affairs Council Fellows and UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues Scholar programs.

Mathy Stanislaus is an environmental lawyer and chemical engineer. He joined Drexel from the Global Battery Alliance, a multi-stakeholder initiative established at the World Economic Forum. There, he served as its first interim director and policy director with a focus on establishing a global transparent data governance system to scale up electric mobility and clean energy in alignment with circular economy, human rights, and community development. Mr. Stanislaus was nominated by President Obama and served for eight years as the Senate-confirmed Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Land & Emergency Management for the Obama Administration. He was the founding co-director of the New Partners for Community Revitalization in New York and he is a former chair long-term member of the Board of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance.