After graduating from Earlham College in Indiana, I spent a year farming on a kibbutz in Israel which was situated 600 feet below sea level on the border with Jordan.  I spent my days on a tractor -- sowing, fertilizing and plowing wheat fields (with occasional periods of working on a cattle ranch on the Golan Heights on the Syrian border or fishing in the Mediterranean Sea).  Our work days began at 4:00 am in order to leave the open fields before the temperatures reached 120 degrees.  

 

When I returned to the U.S. in 1972, I worked on the national staff of the McGovern for President campaign, first in the Ohio and California primaries and then at the D.C. headquarters before heading back to California for the final weeks of the campaign. Many of my friendships were forged during that failed campaign. For the next eight years, I served as legislative director for the so-called pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, where I met my future wife, Leslie.  Following that, for the next six years, I published a newsletter, wrote for the Los Angeles Times and did what most everyone does in D.C. -- consult. 

 

For the past 31 years, I have worked (first as vice president and, since 1992, as president) for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) which, along with three other institutes, was established by the Congress to advance democracy overseas.  This was originally a vision of President Ronald Reagan who, in a 1982 speech before the British parliament, called for the world's democracies to join forces to support democratic values and institutions worldwide. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has been NDI's long-time chairman. 

 

When I began at NDI, we were an organization of five people which has since grown to a staff of more than 1,200  who reside in Washington and at offices in 55 countries worldwide.  I have been privileged to work with thousands of courageous democrats in every region of the world who have struggled against tremendous odds to end dictatorship and live in democratic societies.  I have traveled to more than 110 countries -- many multiple times -- and have been able to witness historic transitions from the Philippines (1986) and Chile (1988);  to Panama (1989) and South Africa (1994); from Romania (1990), Czechoslovakia (1990), Serbia (1990) and Bosnia (1996); to Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004), Tunisia (2011) and Burma (2012).  These efforts have not been easy or cost free; local partners -- civic and political activists and leaders -- have often sacrificed their livelihoods, and sometimes their freedom and lives, for values and principles that we too often take for granted. We have lost staff members to terrorist attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and had 15 staffers who were tried in Egypt and sentenced to up to five years in prison. Fortunately, with the support of our embassy in Cairo, they were able to depart the country before the show trial began. 

 

Family life has been considerably calmer -- but even more rewarding.  Leslie, who runs an association of regional councils throughout the U.S., and I have been married for 37 years and have two daughters.  Our oldest, Lauren, works for Vital Voices, an international organization that promotes women's empowerment.  She is married to Courtney ("Cap") Paul, a doctor at George Washington University Hospital, where he teaches and serves as a hospitalist -- a relatively new profession for in-house doctors who care for patients.  Lauren and Cap have a son, Cooper, who is now a year and a half old. Alison, our younger daughter, is a high school teacher at a charter school in D.C. We are fortunate to have everyone living in Washington, where we get together regularly.  The alliterative male contingent of the family  -- Courtney, Cooper and Ken -- find time to bond,  since for much of the past 30 years, I have been surrounded by women.  Also, Leslie and I always look forward to performing baby sitting duties.