The speakers, all of whom are WHS graduates, are distinguished as well as by their expertise in the fields of diplomacy, journalism, and public service and by the wide, indeed global range of their experience. They will bring the World to Wellesley, as Wellesley brought the World to them.

Nicholas Burns, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and State Department Spokesman served also as U.S. Ambassador to NATO and to Greece. He is currently Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. Jeffrey Fager became the first Chairman of CBS News in February 2011 after re-shaping its flagship broadcast, "60 Minutes," into an editorially more vibrant and news-conscious program. As a senior producer for CBS News he covered many international stories, including the war in Bosnia. Aneesh Raman has just joined the White House staff as a speechwriter. He formerly was a speechwriter in the Department of Defense and for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Earlier, he was an award-winning CNN reporter. He was previously CNN's Middle East correspondent. Sean Carberry, who has more than ten years of experience in radio journalism and public policy, is today a producer on the foreign desk of National Public Radio. He most recently reported from Iraq and Libya.

I cordially invite everyone to attend.

Do not forget to locate that Prom Dress and/or listen to some old records or tapes or CDs so you can make requests for your favorite songs at the Friday night Dance. The gathering of memorabilia for the Open House displays continues apace, and we have sorted out countless old uniforms and banners and locker fronts to add to the Great WHS Yard Sale coffers. The Performing Arts Showcase promises to be a star-studded event—it is the only ticketed event ($12), so watch this space for information about purchasing tickets. We also want to alert everyone that on Tuesday evening, November 22nd at 7:30 p.m., we shall host a panel of WHS grads on the following topic: "US Foreign Policy: Making It, Executing It, Analyzing It, and Covering It." The discussion will be a free event, and we hope to attract a spirited crowd. (Our spiffy new Turn Out the Lights logo is by Tessie Connors, WHS '13.)

Nicholas Burns, WHS '74, is Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is Director of the Future of Diplomacy Project and Faculty Chair for the Programs on the Middle East and on India and South Asia. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Ambassador Burns served in the United States Foreign Service for twenty-seven years until his retirement in April 2008. He was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008, the State Department’s third-ranking official when he led negotiations on the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, a long-term military assistance agreement with Israel and was the lead U.S. negotiator on Iran’s nuclear program. He was U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005) and to Greece (1997-2001) and State Department Spokesman (1995-1997). He worked for five years (1990-1995) on the National Security Council at the White House when he was Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Affairs and Special Assistant to President Clinton and, before that, Director for Soviet Affairs in the Administration of President George H.W. Bush. Professor Burns also served in the American Consulate General in Jerusalem from 1985 to 1987 where he coordinated U.S. economic assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and before that, at the American embassies in Egypt and Mauritania. He has received ten honorary doctorates, the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service from the Johns Hopkins University and the Boston College Alumni Achievement Award. Burns has a BA in History from Boston College (1978) and an MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (1980).

Jeffrey Fager, WHS '73, became the first chairman of CBS News in February 2011, after re-shaping its flagship broadcast, "60 Minutes," into an editorially more vibrant and news-conscious program. His efforts to improve the hit program online have also made the "60 Minutes" brand a hit on the Internet and the model of successful electronic journalism in the digital age. Fager comes to the chairman's position with more than 30 years of experience at every stage of the electronic news business, including 15 years at the executive producer level, seven of those at the helm of "60 Minutes." For his work, the Producers Guild of America voted him best producer in non-fiction television four times and TV Week named him to its top 10 list of most powerful television news executives. Before assuming control of "60 Minutes," Fager is credited with leading "60 Minutes II" to a slew of major awards over a short period of time as its executive producer for its first five seasons. As the executive producer of the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather from 1996 to 1998, Fager led the broadcast's highly praised rededication to hard news, enterprise reporting and increased foreign coverage. Fager was also the senior broadcast producer for the CBS Evening News (1994-96) and covered many major international stories, including the war in Bosnia and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He was part of the original team that developed and launched "48 Hours," the primetime CBS News magazine. Fager served as a producer on the CBS Evening News, based in London (1985-88) and New York (1984-85), covering numerous international stories. He produced segments on Palestinian-Israeli conflicts in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan; the bombing of Libya in 1986; the Reagan-Gorbachev summits in Geneva and Iceland; Gorbachev's first foreign visit, to Paris in 1986; and the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Fager has a BA in English from Colgate University.

Aneesh Raman, WHS '97, has just taken a new job as a speechwriter for the White House, formerly working as a speechwriter at the Department of Defense and as speechwriter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Before joining the government, Raman was an award-winning CNN reporter and the network's first ever correspondent based in the Middle East responsible for region-wide coverage. Raman had worked earlier on the presidential campaign of Barack Obama as part of the communications team set up for vice presidential nominee Joe Biden. As CNN's Middle East correspondent, Raman was based in Egypt but was largely responsible for coverage out of Iran. Over the course of a dozen trips, Raman reported extensively on Iran's nuclear ambitions and the growing frustration of the people towards their government. From 2005 to 2006, Raman was CNN's Baghdad Correspondent, living in Iraq during an exceptionally volatile period in the Iraq War. In addition to embedding with US forces across the country, Raman provided some of the most comprehensive reporting on Iraq's National Assembly and the efforts to ratify a new constitution. Raman also provided in-depth coverage of the Saddam Hussein trial and was notably the first American television journalist to announce Saddam Hussein's execution. Raman's initial international posting was in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was the first Western reporter to go live from Phuket, Thailand after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Raman spent weeks covering the aftermath of the ensuing tsunami and was part of the CNN team that won a 2005 Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award. Raman graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude and was a Fulbright Scholar.

Sean Carberry, WHS '87, has more than 10 years of radio journalism, audio production, and public policy experience. Sean currently is a producer on the foreign desk of National Public Radio, most recently reporting from Iraq and Libya. Previously he was supervising senior producer and correspondent for America Abroad Media in Washington, D.C. In addition to managing the radio production team, providing editorial oversight, and serving as the technical director of the monthly radio program, Carberry has traveled to Iraq, Lebanon, Serbia, Kosovo, Russia, Sudan, Egypt, Colombia, and Afghanistan to produce and report segments for America Abroad. Previously Carberry worked at WBUR-FM in Boston serving as political producer and field producer as well as technical director/associate producer for The Connection, and producer and/or reporter for On Point, Here & Now, Morning Edition, and All Things Considered.

Alan Henrikson is the Director of Diplomatic Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he teaches US diplomatic history, contemporary US-European relations, global political geography, and the history, theory, and practice of diplomacy. His current research focus is the diplomacy of the US-EU relationship, in the larger context of relations between the United States and Europe in the world. Professor Henrikson was the Fulbright Chair in US-EU Relations at the College of Europe during 2010-2011. During the Spring of 2003 he was Fulbright/Diplomatic Academy Visiting Professor of International Relations at the Diplomatische Akademie in Vienna. He also has been Lloyd I. Miller Visiting Professor of Diplomatic History at the US Department of State, Visiting Professor at the National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo, and United Nations Development Programme Visiting Professor of Diplomatic History at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. Professor Henrikson received Ph.D., A.M., and A.B. degrees in History from Harvard University. He also is a graduate of the University of Oxford where he read Philosophy-Politics-and-Economics at Balliol College as a Rhodes Scholar. He has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. He also has been an Associate and Visiting Scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Prof. Henrikson lives in Wellesley.