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2025 Royce Symposium

Panelists

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Ed Royce

Keynote Speaker

Ed Royce ('77)

Policy Director, Brownstein Hyatt
Farber Schreck

Ed Royce leverages his exceptional understanding of world trends and high-level relationships with global leaders to creatively solve problems, unlock value and expand market opportunities for clients domestically and internationally. He represented southern Californians in the U.S. House of Representatives for 26 years, chairing the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2013-2019.

As HFAC committee chair, Ed shepherded over 80 bills into law focused on sanctions, trade, export controls and U.S. global investment. He was a dealmaker who worked with Democrats and Republicans to advance American prosperity and security. Ed led congressional delegations around the world and engaged directly with heads of state. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the distinct culture, customs and traditions of many nations worldwide, and deeply understands the multilateral, bilateral and internal pressures at play. As former chairman of the African Subcommittee, he is a co-author of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) a co-author of PEPFAR reauthorization, author of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership as well as the Electrify Africa Act.

Now, as co-chair of Brownstein’s international practice, Ed represents clients before government officials and business leaders in South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Personally, Ed is active in promoting strong U.S. development and commercial engagement overseas. From 2020-2024, he served on the Development Advisory Council of the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The DFC is the lead agency to derisk U.S. investment overseas. Ed now serves on the National Advisory Council of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

Ed also serves on the Atlantic Council’s International Advisory Board for the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

Ed’s alma mater, California State University, Fullerton, annually hosts the Royce International Symposium to honor Ed’s vision for strengthening America broad.

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Paula Dobriansky

Ambassador Paula Dobriansky

Senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School
Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs

Ambassador Dobriansky, a foreign policy expert and diplomat specializing in national security affairs, is also Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She brings over thirty years of government and international experience across senior levels of diplomacy, business, and defense.

Dobriansky served as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs from 2001 to 2009. She has held many Senate-confirmed, senior level positions in the US government, including Director of European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Associate Director for Policy and Programs at the United States Information Agency, and Deputy Head of the US Delegation to the 1990 Copenhagen Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. From 1997 to 2001, she served as Senior Vice President and Director of the Council on Foreign Relations and was the first George F. Kennan Senior Fellow on Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Ambassador Dobriansky received a BSFS summa cum laude in international politics from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, as well as an MA and PhD in Soviet political and military affairs from Harvard University. She has received high-level international recognition from the governments of Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania, and Colombia and is the recipient of five honorary degrees.

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Eric Farnsworth

Eric Farnsworth

Vice President, Council of the Americas and the Americas Society - Washington D.C.

Eric Farnsworth has a passion for promoting the importance of the Western Hemisphere for U.S. economic, security, and strategic interests. A recognized expert, he maintains an important policy leadership and advocacy role across a broad range of issues, including U.S. relations, economic development, trade, and energy; Asia-Latin American relations and global governance; and security and democracy.

He consults frequently with senior U.S. government and foreign officials and private sector leaders, is a widely sought conference speaker and media commentator, and publishes regularly in leading newspapers and journals.

Prior to the Council, Mr. Farnsworth served in government with the U.S. Department of State, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and Clinton White House. He also worked with U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA). His private sector experiences include ManattJones Global Strategies and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Corporation. He has been decorated by the Governments of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Spain, and is an elected Academic Correspondent of Uruguay.

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Marie Royce

Marie Royce

Former Assistant Secretary of State,
Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State

Marie Royce is a businesswoman, diplomat, and educator who serves as an advisor, and on non-profit and for-profit boards.

She recently served as Assistant Secretary of State, Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), where she had the honor of leading a global team of 674 employees, overseeing two Presidentially-appointed Boards (Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and Cultural Property Advisory Committee – CPAC), and a budget of $760 million.

Assistant Secretary Royce was sworn into office after being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Ms. Royce has 25+ years of global experience in the Fortune 500. She also served as a full-time visiting professor and is a small business owner.

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Greg Weeks

Dr. Greg Weeks

Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs
University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Dr. Greg Weeks is Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at UNC Charlotte. He is Professor of Political Science and Latin American Studies. His research focuses on Latin American politics and U.S.-Latin American relations, and he has published extensively on these topics.

His most recent book is Embracing Autonomy: Latin American-U.S. Relations in the 21st Century. Other books include The Military and Politics in Postauthoritarian Chile; U.S. and Latin American Relations (in its third edition); Understanding Latin American Politics; and Irresistible Forces: Latin American Migration to the United States and its Effects on the South.

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Thomas P. Sheehy

Thomas P. Sheehy

Principal, Quinella Global LLC

Tom Sheehy served as Staff Director of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives. The committee has jurisdiction over all elements of U.S. foreign policy, including operations of the State Department, Agency for International Development, and Development Finance Corporation. Tom was responsible for all committee functions, including goal setting, oversight hearings, communications, working with congressional leadership offices and other national security committees, and managing legislation.

Previously, Tom directed the Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade Subcommittee and has been involved in shaping most every new U.S. development initiative, including the African Growth and Opportunity Act and its several updates, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and most recently, the BUILD Act. During over 20 years on the Committee staff, he organized dozens of congressional delegations to all areas of the world.

Before joining the committee, Tom was the Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs at the Heritage Foundation. He was an original co-author of The Index of Economic Freedom, an internationally acclaimed annual survey of national economies, co-published by The Wall Street Journal, now in its 28th edition.

He earned a B.A. from Trinity College (Hartford) and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Virginia. Tom and his wife Elizabeth live in Arlington, Virginia.

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Carol Wise

Dr. Carol Wise

Professor of Political Science and International Affairs
University of Southern California

Dr. Wise has written widely on trade integration, exchange rate crises, institutional reform, and the political economy of market restructuring in the Latin American region. She is the author of the book, Dragonomics: How Latin America is Maximizing (or Missing Out) on China’s International Development Strategy (Yale University Press, 2020), which received USC’s Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award in 2021 and the Luciano Tomassini 2021 Award-Honorable Mention for the Best Book on International Relations from the Latin American Studies Association.

She is co-editor of Unexpected Outcomes: How the Emerging Economies Survived the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis (Brookings, 2016), and co-editor of The Political Economy of China-Latin American Relations in the New Millennium (Routledge, 2016).

Wise’s most recent journal article is “Grand Development Strategy or Simply Grandiose? China’s Diffusion of Its Belt & Road Initiative into Central Europe” (with Oldrich Krpec), New Political Economy (2022). Wise Holds a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University.

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