Expo Community Conversation
2022-06-23 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Virtual Event
Join us for this Expo Community Conversation event brought to you in partnership with the World Affairs Council – Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky, Global Ties, the U.S. Department of State and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Join us for a discussion on how we bring Expos back to the United States and do so in a more inclusive way that highlights our country’s diversity as a strength of our democracy. Expos, also known as World’s Fairs, are the world’s oldest and largest mega event, held every three-five years in host cities around the world since their inception in 1851 in London. Similar to the Olympics, which are world festivals of sports, Expos are festivals of culture, technology, innovation, design, and human excellence. Past Expos have seen a multitude of countries showcase innovations such as the mobile phone, the X-Ray Machine, and the ice cream cone.
Though Expos have not captured many U.S. citizens’ imaginations, for those who experienced the events within the United States and overseas the last sixty years, the experiences impacted simultaneously their worldviews and views of their communities.
The physical legacies of Expos in New Orleans, New York, San Antonio, and Seattle—four of the last ones hosted inside the United States, between 1960-1984—are well established. But the “felt” legacies are underexplored and powerful. With geopolitics rapidly shifting, these soft power platforms are critical to illuminating U.S. values to international audiences. We also have an opportunity to rethink how we bring Expos back to the United States and do so in a more inclusive way that highlights our country’s diversity as a strength of our democracy.
Join us for a conversation on a groundbreaking oral history project to explore the future of International Expositions and the United States’ role in them. The event will also feature Oral Historian, Anna F. Kaplan, PhD, and Paul Kruchoski, a career member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Director of the Office of Policy, Planning, and Resources for Public Diplomacy.

Society and Cyberthreats: Risks to National Security in a Global Economy
2022-10-19 18:30 - 19:30 | Virtual Event
Join us for a Virtual Event on Wednesday, October 19th at 6:30 PM via Zoom Webinar, Society and Cyberthreats: Risks to National Security in a Global Economy.
Today, we transact vast amounts of data through smart-devices for work, home life, and everything in between. Data is the ‘new oil’ and cybersecurity has evolved into a primary focus for malicious actors—some of whom are foreign State actors and often very well organized, coordinated, with the objective of achieving strategic outcomes. To better understand this landscape of cyberthreats, we bring together this panel discussion on Society and Cyberthreats to examine our country’s cyber strategies.
We are joined by Dr. Harknett and Ms. Guider to start by asking some simple questions to better understand Cyberthreats in our daily lives beyond our mere distant awareness about coercion, militarized crisis, and war:

Is cybersecurity more of a technology or people problem?
How have the nature of cybersecurity threats changed in the recent decade(s)?
How has the training/education curriculum evolved in response to the changing global cybersecurity threats?

Guest Panelists:
Kathy Guider, Vice President Veracity IIR, retired FBI Special Agent
Richard Harknett, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Professor & Director, School of Public and International Affairs (SPIC), Co-Director, Ohio Cyber Range Institute(OCRI), Chair, Center for Cyber Strategy and Policy (CCSP)

Climate Migration with United States Institute of Peace
2023-11-09 16:00 - 17:00
Register Here
The links between climate change, conflict, and human mobility are complex. In 2022, disasters internally displaced 32.6 million people, more than at any other time over the last decade. Most of these displacements occurred in areas that are fragile or conflict-prone. In fact, ninety percent of all refugees come from places that are some of the most vulnerable to climate-related impacts. Right now, these fragile regions already grapple with increased food insecurity, unemployment, and competition over resources – particularly water. In what ways does climate change exacerbate such situations? In what ways may that lead to conflict or forced migration?
In partnership with Green Umbrella, we invite students, educators, and community members for an evening exploring Climate Conflict and Climate Migration with Kayly Ober, Senior Program Officer for U.S. Institute of Peace.
Kayly Ober is a senior program officer for the climate, environment and conflict program at USIP. In this role, she leads research and analysis on climate change, migration and displacement as well as transboundary water and conflict issues.
Prior to USIP, she was the senior advocate and program manager of the climate displacement program at Refugees International. She also served as a member of the Task Force on Displacement established under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. She has worked on climate change and migration issues for more than 15 years, during which time she has held positions at organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, the Overseas Development Institute, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the World Bank, where she authored the flagship report “Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration.”
Ober holds a master’s in environment and development from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s in international studies from American University. She is currently completing her doctorate in geography at the University of Bonn, where her dissertation analyzes policymaking and governance structures around the climate change-adaptation-migration nexus.

(VIRTUAL EVENT) Great Decisions: Climate Technology and Competition
2024-05-16 14:15 - 15:00 | Virtual Event
Will the United States and China, with other powerful countries following suit, approach current and future climate initiatives with an increased commitment to trade protectionism and nationalism by various measures including trade restrictions? Or could a growing spirit of international accord develop to confront the “common enemy” of climate change?
Moderator: Jeffrey S. Morton, the Pierrepont Comfort Chair in Political Science at Florida Atlantic University and a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association.

Register here for this virtual event on Zoom!

Bites & Bytes: Google's Latest AI Rollouts Virtual Workshop
2025-10-16 11:30 - 12:30
Join us in partnership with the Hamilton County Educational Service Center (HCESC) for an informative workshop focusing on how to utilize AI in the classroom. Led by HCESC’s Instructional Technology Consultant, Sara Sheldt, learn how Google’s new AI tools—including Gemini—are transforming and supporting both educators and students.
These innovations are especially valuable for today’s global classroom, enhancing accessibility, collaboration, and cross-cultural learning. This workshop is offered in collaboration with the World Affairs Council – Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, as part of our shared commitment to promoting education for all.
The workshop will go from 11:30-12:15PM and will be $20 per person.
About Sara:
Sara Sheldt is an Instructional Technology Consultant with Hamilton County ESC, bringing 20 years of experience in education. She supports schools and districts in integrating technology to enhance teaching and learning, with a current focus on artificial intelligence tools. Sara is passionate about helping educators leverage technology to engage students, differentiate instruction, and bring real-world skills into the classroom while also simplifying their tasks to give them more time to focus on what matters most.

Global Chat: Your AI Co-Pilot for Glocal Impact (Create and Use a Custom Bot in Under an Hour!)
2025-11-17 16:00 - 17:00
Are you ready to bring high-impact global education into your classroom without adding hours to your planning time?

Join us for an energetic, hands-on session that introduces you to the future of teacher support: Your Custom AI Co-Pilot.
The World Affairs Council of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky is launching the Youth Leaders for Glocal Impact (YLGI) platform, and we’ve built a dedicated AI chatbot powered by Google’s Gemini technology just for our educators.
In this 60-minute workshop, you will:

Unlock the Power of the YLGI Chatbot: Learn how to use this custom tool to instantly get answers on project deadlines, budget templates, and program rules, so you can focus on mentoring, not managing.
Generate Ideas on Demand: We’ll dive into practical prompts and use the bot to generate tangible ideas for connecting your current classroom topics to Global Themes and local community action. Walk away with ideas you can implement tomorrow, such as:

“How can my 9th-grade history class explore sustainable cities and communities using a Cincinnati-based current event?”
“Give me three quick community engagement activities for a project focusing on access to clean water around the world.”

Become AI Literate: Gain essential skills in AI prompting and learn the responsible way to use these tools to enhance global literacy and project-based learning in your school.

Your Takeaway: You will leave this session with a clear understanding of how to use this AI co-pilot as a permanent, always-on planning assistant, allowing you to lead your students to greater Glocal Impact with less effort!
About Joshua Amstutz – Josh has taught for 15 years, 14 of which have been for the Winton Woods City School District (WWHS). He is the current coordinator of the Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School, the Math Department Head at Winton Woods High School, a certified New Tech Network trained teacher, and a New Tech Network trainer for project based learning at Winton Woods High School. Josh graduated from Capital University with a degree in Integrated Mathematics and from the University of Cincinnati with a MAT graduate degree from the Department of Mathematics.
In addition to his many roles at WWHS, Josh is part of the 2019-2020 Impact U cohort on improvement science through Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Strive Partnership. He is a Fulbright Alum from the 2019-2020 cohort of the Fulbright for Global Classrooms program and a TOP alum from the 2025 cohort of the Transatlantic Outreach Program. He was selected as the 2022 AFS-USA Global Educator of the Year and is a current state finalist in Ohio for the 2025 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). He has also worked closely with the curriculum director and his school’s physics teacher to implement multiple co-taught math and science courses as well as College Credit Plus (CCP) math courses in his school district. He currently teaches a combined math and science course called Pre-Calculus Aligned Physics (PCAP) in addition to CCP Statistics and CCP Calculus.
