A new bimonthly newsletter, called The Latest, has made its debut from the Stanley Foundation, the nonprofit group based in Muscatine, Iowa, that works on peace and security issues through the promotion of good governance and justice worldwide. Keith Porter is also the new president of the organization, having been promoted from director of policy and outreach.
As an online publication, The Latest (the foundation lower-cases the name) aims to keep readers abreast of the activities of the foundation — with information about staff members and partners, events and multimedia resources — as well as offering a global news feature. Other foundation publications, like policy briefs and reports, will also be made available on The Latest.
The first issue, published in May, offers such a mix. The top story is focused on a two-part broadcast segment about the violent causes of Kenya’s 2007 presidential elections and its most recent elections in March. The program, which was broadcast on PBS News Hour and supported by the Stanley Foundation, also delved into the growing tensions between Christians and Muslims in Kenya, one of Africa’s most populous countries.
Another article, “Avoiding the Next World Food Crisis,” by Sophia Murphy, is a policy brief commissioned by the foundation that looks at how the Group of 20 nations could take a more concentrated approach to smoothing the ups and downs of food insecurity. Murphy is a senior adviser for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, based in Minneapolis. In her brief, she analyzes how the G-20 could help ease food insecurity by reforming certain domestic policies, like American and European biofuels mandates; accepting greater transparency in the level and use of grain stocks; and by improving the regulation of speculation on commodity futures markets, among other steps.
Dulcie Leimbach is a co-founder, with Barbara Crossette, of PassBlue. For PassBlue and other publications, Leimbach has reported from New York and overseas from West Africa (Burkina Faso and Mali) and from Europe (Scotland, Sicily, Vienna, Budapest, Kyiv, Armenia, Iceland and The Hague). She has provided commentary on the UN for BBC World Radio, ARD German TV and Radio, NHK’s English channel, Background Briefing with Ian Masters/KPFK Radio in Los Angeles and the Foreign Press Association.
Previously, she was an editor for the Coalition for the UN Convention Against Corruption; from 2008 to 2011, she was the publications director of the United Nations Association of the USA. Before UNA, Leimbach was an editor at The New York Times for more than 20 years, editing and writing for most sections of the paper, including the Magazine, Book Review and Op-Ed. She began her reporting career in small-town papers in San Diego, Calif., and Boulder, Colo., graduating to the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and then working at The Times. Leimbach has been a fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies as well as at Yaddo, the artists’ colony in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; taught news reporting at Hofstra University; and guest-lectured at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the CUNY Journalism School. She graduated from the University of Colorado and has an M.F.A. in writing from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
