News and Events : News 06-07

NMH State of the World Speaker
to Address Poverty in Afghanistan

GILL, MA— Alan Straus, a lawyer and board member of the Global Partnership for Afghanistan, will speak about his group’s efforts to stem poverty in the war-torn nation Dec. 7 at 6:45 pm in the Blake Hall second-floor atrium. The talk is part of Northfield Mount Hermon School’s State of the World speaker series. It is free and open to the public.

The Global Partnership for Afghanistan works to support Afghanistan’s most critical needs: reducing poverty, rebuilding high-value agricultural land, and establishing alternative livelihoods to poppy production.

In September, President Bill Clinton praised the group by saying “The Global Partnership for Afghanistan is the essence of what the Clinton Global Initiative is all about. … Its goals include striving for less opium and heroin in cities all over the world. This is a model which is infinitely expandable. Here’s something you can invest in that you know is going to work.”

Selected to be part of the poverty alleviation team of the Clinton Global Initiative, the Global Partnership for Afghanistan will provide sustainable livelihoods for thousands of Afghanistan families and enable the planting of one million fruit and poplar trees.

Straus, a graduate of NMH’s class of 1970, is a partner in the international law firm of Skadden Arps, et al, specializing in corporate finance, corporate restructuring and international business transactions. Since 1995, Straus has chaired the Committee on Economies in Transition of the U.S. Council on International Business and has served as a trustee of the council. After graduating from NMH, he earned degrees from the University of Wisconsin (BA’74, with honors) and New York University (JD’77), where he was editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Law and Politics.

Contact: Kate Snyder, 413-498-3357 or ksnyder@nmhschool.org.

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