Kavita Ramdas writes:  “I am delighted to share that I have just arrived in New Delhi to head the Ford Foundation here in South Asia.  Ford has been in India for 60 years and has a long history of being engaged with development efforts here. My husband, Zulfiqar Ahmad, hopes to continue his writing and research on South Asia from a closer vantage point than the Bay area which we called home for 16 years.  Our daughter Mira Ahmad just started as a freshman at Princeton this fall and we are missing her a lot although we did try to avoid empty nest syndrome by fleeing it ourselves — not sure it helps with the sense of bewilderment at the peace and quiet of not having a teenager around!  We are slowly adjusting to a new pace of life and to an India much transformed and yet stubbornly unchanged in many ways…it will take some getting used to after the pristine surroundings of Silicon Valley and Stanford university.  I also just took on the role of Chair of the Global Agenda Council for India of the World Economic Forum, where I hope to learn from colleagues in both the private and public sectors as I seek to deepen my understanding of the multiple challenges facing India.  In February, we hope to welcome an Aspen Institute group bringing members of Congress to India in February to discuss issues of regional co-operation and growth.  We hope to welcome many friends from the Crown fellowship who may find themselves in India over the next few years.”

Deval Patrick published an e-book, Faith in the Dream, in May 2012. It is described as “a powerful call to action by one of the nation’s most inspirational public figures, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Our country is at a critical crossroads and Americans of all political persuasions sense that something significant is at stake. In this short, but powerful, first-of-its-kind eBook original, Governor Patrick shows how and why the American Dream itself—the ability of future generations to inherit a country and a life better, more prosperous, and more progressive than that of their forbears—is today very much up for grabs, and what we must all do to restore it.”

And, in August, John Danner’s Rocketship Education was featured in a Washington Post article on their move to expand into eight new schools in Milwaukee and the possibility that the model John has created, if successfully replicated in other cities, will significantly reform the U.S. educational system.   We look forward to hearing more!