Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in Asia
March 3, 2021 8:00 pm - 11:00 pmThe Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies and Asian Development Bank will be co-hosting "Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in Asia." The keynote address will be by President Masatsugu Asakawa of the Asian Development Bank. The event will be moderated by Dr. Kent Calder, Director of the Reischauer Center.
While individuals, businesses, and communities have persistently been exposed to a variety of natural hazards and manmade disasters, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic evolved to be a global biological disaster that is one of the most serious and catastrophic events in human history. What are the challenges for us to exit from the COVID crisis? How can we prepare for the great reset in Asia? Prominent experts will discuss strategies for the post COVID-19 recovery and beyond.
Event Schedule
8:00 PM EST
Keynote Address: Mr. Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank
8:15 PM EST
PANEL I: EXITING THE COVID CRISIS (Moderator: Ambassador David Shear)
DEFEATING THE PANDEMIC (Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo)
VACCINE PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION (Dr. Eduardo P. Banzon)
THE CHALLENGE OF FOOD SUPPLY (Dr. Jessica Fanzo)
RE-OPENING ASIAN ECONOMIES (Dr. Yasuyuki Sawada)
QUESTION AND ANSWER
9:30 PM EST
PANEL II: THE GREAT RESET IN ASIA
(Moderator: Dr. Joseph Zveglich, Jr.)
PERSPECTIVES ON AN ENVIRONMENTAL RESET (Ambassador Cinnamon Dornsife)
THE WORKPLACE OF THE FUTURE (Professor Martin Bloem)
TRADE, INVESTMENT, and REGIONAL COOPERATION (Dr. Mia Mikic)
DIGITALIZATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS (Mr. Thomas Abell)
10:45 PM EST, Concluding Remarks: Dr. Kent Calder, Director, Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins SAIS
All Biographies:
President Masatsugu Asakawa is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was elected President by ADB’s Board of Governors and assumed office on 17 January 2020. Prior to joining ADB, he served as Special Advisor to Japan’s Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and has a close-to-four decades’ career at the Ministry of Finance with diverse professional experiences that cut across both domestic and international fronts. Mr. Asakawa also worked for international organizations as the Chief Advisor to ADB President between 1989 and 1992, senior staff at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF (1996–2000), and Chair for the Committee on Fiscal Affairs at Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2011–2016).
Mr. Thomas Abell is the Chief of ADB’s Digital Technology for Development Unit, which promotes the effective use of digital technology across ADB programs to improve development impact. His team works with ADB member countries in supporting the transition to the digital economy and provides assistance across many areas, including eGovernment, tech startup ecosystems, technology policy, and industry partnerships. Thomas has over 30 years of professional experience in digital technology, including technology policy and strategy, software development, and systems architecture. During his 10+ years of experience in international development, he has worked extensively across Asia, Africa and Latin America, working with governments, development organizations, NGOs and corporations. He has authored many publications on technology innovation in development, focused mainly on education, financial inclusion and agriculture. Thomas has master’s degrees in engineering and management and a bachelors in engineering from MIT.
Dr. Martin W. Bloem, MD, PhD, is the inaugural Robert S. Lawrence Professor and current director of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He joined the Center in 2017, relocating to Baltimore from Rome, where he spent 12 years as a senior nutrition adviser at the United Nations World Food Programme and as a Global Coordinator for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. His appointment as professor at the School and director of CLF followed years of service to the Bloomberg School of Public Health as an adjunct associate professor. Born and raised in the Netherlands, Martin earned his medical degree from the University of Utrecht and his doctorate in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Maastricht.
Dr. Kent Calder is Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies in Washington, DC. He also previously served as Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and International Research Cooperation at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, in the fall of 2014. Before arriving at Johns Hopkins SAIS in 2003, he taught for twenty years at Princeton University, and acted as a Visiting Professor at Seoul National University and Lecturer in Government at Harvard University. Dr. Calder has also served as Special Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan (1997-2001), Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (1989-1993 and 1996), and as the first Executive Director of Harvard University’s Program on U.S.-Japan Relations (1979-1980). He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1979, where he worked under the direction of Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer.
Ambassador Cinnamon Dornsife is currently Senior Advisor of the International Development Program and Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (JHU/SAIS). At SAIS, Professor Dornsife teaches courses on international financial institutions and social entrepreneurship. At the FPI, her research focuses on global governance and livable cities. She is a former U.S. Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank. She leads the social entrepreneurship leadership activities at SAIS, including serving as Faculty Director for the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator Fund. Dornsife has served in many high profile roles, including US Ambassador and US Executive Director at the Asian Development Bank. She spent more than a decade serving the Asia Foundation in several senior positions at headquarters, heading the Washington, D.C. office and in the field office in Indonesia. Dornsife holds a B.A. in Chemistry and Mathematic from Emory University and an M.A. in International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Dr. Jessica Fanzo is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. She also serves as the Director of Hopkins’ Global Food Policy and Ethics Program, and as Director of Food & Nutrition Security at the JHU Alliance for a Healthier World. From 2017 to 2019, Jessica served as the Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report and the UN High Level Panel of Experts on Food Systems and Nutrition. Her research expertise includes the impact of transitioning food systems on healthy, environmentally sustainable and equitable diets, and more broadly on the livelihoods of people living in resource-constrained places. She received her PhD in Nutrition from the University of Arizona and completed a Stephen I. Morse postdoctoral fellowship in Immunology in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Columbia University.
Dr. Mia Mikic is a trade economist with a keen interest in sustainable development and with a proven track record and experience in academia and international civil service. She served as Director, Trade, Investment and Innovation Division in <a… Location: Online SAIS Event