Think Tank Gets Federal Funding

A $500,000 appropriation from the federal government will help the University of Miami’s Center for Hemispheric Policy (CHP) continue its mission of examining critical issues affecting countries in the Western Hemisphere. The funding, announced Monday, March 17, 2008, during a ceremony at UM’s McLamore Executive Education Center, is the third in a series of grants totaling $1.5 million that have been awarded to the center by the U.S. Department of State. Established nearly three years ago, the center regularly hosts academic policy discussions on economic and political developments, business and trade, U.S. policy, and security issues in the region. It also hosts distinguished Latin American and Caribbean visiting fellows, and forms task forces that examine timely issues such as free trade and competitiveness and the sustainability of democracy in Latin America. The latest grant will support two new task forces, one on energy and cooperation and the other on sustainable development in the hemisphere.

Taking part in Monday’s check presentation are, from left, UM Life Trustee Charles E. “Chuck” Cobb Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to Iceland; CHP Director Susan Kaufman Purcell; President Donna E. Shalala; and U.S. congresswoman and UM alumna Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who was instrumental in securing the appropriation and has been a longtime supporter of the center’s mission.