MSC SCONA Speakers Share Their Experiences Working in the Middle East

Shannon Sedgwick Davis, who currently leads the Bridgeway Foundation in its efforts to fight violence and oppression and promote peacemaking in the world’s poorest countries, has also played an important role in the campaign to capture Joseph Kony, the Ugandan man wanted by the International Criminal Court for abducting tens of thousands of people for conscription into the Lord’s Resistance Army. Stuart Bowen served as the “taxpayer’s watchdog” in Iraq for nine years in his role as the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. General James Mattis, USMC, commanded assault battalions in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and also commanded Marine forces during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Dr. Andrew Natsios led efforts to deal with the Darfur crisis as the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and is currently Director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs.    

These four speakers will all be on campus this week Thursday and Friday, February 20^th and 21^st, as part of the 59^th MSC Student Conference on National Affairs (SCONA).  The title of this year’s SCONA is “Caught In the Sandstorm:  from Persia to the Sahara,” so all four speakers will share with conference delegates their experiences and expertise working in the Middle East.  These speaker programs are also free and open to the public as part of the MSC SCONA committee’s ongoing effort to provide students with access to diplomats and national affairs professionals and the knowledge they can provide. 

The speaker schedule is as follows:

Stuart Bowen – Thursday, February 20 at 9am in MSC Gates Room

General James Mattis, USMC – Thursday, February 20 at 2pm in Rudder Theater

Dr. Andrew Natsios – Friday, February 21 at 9am in MSC Gates Room

Shannon Sedgwick Davis – Friday, February 21 at 2:30pm in MSC Gates Room

Complete speaker bios are available after the jump.

Stuart W. Bowen, Jr. was appointed Inspector General for the Coalition Provisional Authority in January 2004, and, since October 2004, he has served as the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. As the “taxpayer’s watchdog” in Iraq, Mr. Bowen oversees more than $60 billion in U.S. funds.

Over the past 9 years, Mr. Bowen has made 34 trips to Iraq, managed the production of 390 audits and inspections, issued 9 comprehensive lessons learned reports, and provided 35 quarterly reports on Iraq reconstruction to the Congress. His oversight work has produced financial benefits to the U.S. Government in excess of $1.8 billion and has yielded 84 convictions for fraud and other crimes. In 2006, the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency awarded Inspector General Bowen the Gaston L. Gianni, Jr. Better Government Award for “demonstrating integrity, determination, and courage” in providing independent oversight and unbiased review of U. S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq. And in May 2010, the National Intergovernmental Audit Forum presented him with its David M. Walker Excellence in Federal Government Performance and Accountability Award for outstanding oversight work.

Inspector General Bowen’s public service career includes service to President George W. Bush as Deputy Assistant to the President/Deputy Staff Secretary, and Special Assistant to the President/Associate Counsel. Mr. Bowen also served Governor Bush in Texas as Deputy General Counsel. Prior to that, Mr. Bowen was an Assistant Attorney General of Texas and a Briefing Attorney to Texas Supreme Court Justice Raul Gonzalez. Mr. Bowen is a military veteran, having served four years on active duty as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force, earning the rank of Captain and the Air Force Commendation Medal.

Licensed by the Texas State Bar, Mr. Bowen is Board Certified in Administrative Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, lower federal courts, and all Texas state courts. He holds a B.A. from the University of the South and a J.D. from St. Mary's Law School, where he served on the Law Journal’s Editorial Board.

Retired General Mattis, USMC, has commanded at multiple levels. As a lieutenant, he served as a rifle and weapons platoon commander in the 3rd Marine Division. As a captain, he commanded a rifle company and a weapons company in the 1st Marine Brigade.

As a major, he commanded Recruiting Station Portland. As a lieutenant colonel, he commanded 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, one of Task Force Ripper's assault battalions in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. As a colonel, he commanded 7th Marines (Reinforced) and served as the Executive Secretary to the Department of Defense.

Upon becoming a brigadier general, he served as the Senior Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.  He commanded the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade and Task Force 58 during Operation Enduring Freedom in southern Afghanistan. As a major general, he commanded the 1st Marine Division during the initial attack and subsequent stability operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In his first tour as a lieutenant general, he commanded the Marine Corps Combat Development Command while serving as the Deputy Commandant for Combat Development. He next commanded the I Marine Expeditionary Force and served as the Commander of U.S. Marine Forces Central Command.  He served as both NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation from 2007-2009 and as Commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command from 2007-2010. He was confirmed as the Commander of U.S. Central Command in August 2010 where he served until his departure in March 2013.

Gen. Mattis, a native of the Pacific Northwest, graduated from Central Washington State University in 1972. He is also a graduate of the Amphibious Warfare School, Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the National War College.

Andrew S. Natsios is Executive Professor at the George H.W. Bush School of Government at Texas A&M University and Director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs. He was Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service between 2006-2012 and a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. Natsios served as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2001 to January 2006. 

In addition to his teaching at Georgetown he served as U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan from October 2006 to December 2007 to deal with the Darfur crisis and the North-South peace agreement. A former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for six terms, he also served in state government as the Secretary of Administration and Finance, and the CEO of the Big Dig in Boston, the largest construction project in American history which depressed the elevated highway through the center of Boston 60 feet underground. He took over the Big Dig after a cost over-run scandal was uncovered in the project.

From 1993 to 1998, Natsios was vice president of World Vision U.S., the largest faith-based NGOs in the world. Natsios was a member of the US Army Reserves for 23 years, served in the Gulf War in 1991 on active duty and was a Lt. Colonel when he retired in 1995.   

He is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Natsios is the author of three books, U.S. Foreign Policy and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1997), The Great North Korean Famine (2001), Sudan, South Sudan, and Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know, collaborated on twelve other books, and numerous articles. He is currently working on a book on foreign aid.

Shannon Sedgwick Davis is CEO of the Bridgeway Foundation, the charitable giving arm of Bridgeway Capital Management, Inc. An attorney, Shannon is a passionate advocate for social justice and International human rights. She is a well-known strategist engaged in promoting peace and ending human atrocities across our globe.

Shannon is a recipient of The Spirit of Mcmurry award, given annually to one outstanding alumni, as well as Baylor Law School's 2011 Young Lawyer of the year award. Shannon's work has been featured a number of times on radio, television, and through print media.

Shannon previously served as Vice-President of Geneva Global, and Director of Public Affairs at International Justice Mission. She is currently a board member of several organizations within the US and abroad including The Elders, Humanity United, and Toms Shoes.