Opening Speaker: Caroline Nguyen Ticarro | Closing Speaker: Mary Carlin Yates
Founder and Executive Director, Catalyst Foundation
![]() Caroline Nguyen Ticarro is the founder of Catalyst Foundation, a Portland-based humanitarian organization that helps build communities in Viet Nam to fight human trafficking. Catalyst Foundation supports community programs in Viet Nam to provide basic needs, job opportunities, counseling, and education. In 2012, Ms. Ticarro’s work was highlighted on “CNN Freedom Project,” a 3-part series on CNN International.
Former US Ambassador to Burundi, Former US Ambassador to Ghana, former US Special Assistant to the President for Africa ![]() Mary Carlin Yates is a 32-year career diplomat for the United States. She has worked under Republican and Democratic US Presidential Administrations from President Reagan to President Obama. Ambassador Yates worked for the Department of State, with the US Military and at the National Security Council during President Obama’s administration. In Africa, she served as Ambassador in Burundi and in Ghana. For the US military, she held the position of Foreign Policy Advisor to the European Command and then Deputy Commander in the new US Africa Command 2007-09. She also drafted the 2010 National Security Strategy for President Obama’s first term and later served as his Special Assistant for Africa before returning to Africa to serve as Charge d'Affaires in the US embassy in Khartoum, Sudan.
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