On behalf of the WACA Board of Directors many thanks to all of you who supported and participated in last week's very successful 2015 National Conference. Our emotions Friday, however, quickly turned from joy to horror.

Just hours after the Conference ended, news broke of the despicable series of terrorist attacks perpetrated by ISIS in Paris. The coordinated assaults have claimed 129 lives and injured more than 340, many of whom remain in critical condition. The world is outraged: as France intensifies air strikes on ISIS sites in Syrian territory, Moscow is shifting its own retaliatory focus toward the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian charter flight that left 224 dead. A backlash against refugees is mounting.

The new, horrible context brings into sharper focus many of the key issues discussed in depth by our assembled speakers and attendees. Leading America: Foreign Policy Challenges and the 2016 Election and the reactions to Paris - including U.S. counterterrorism policy and remarks by presidential candidates - will frame many Council programs and conversations in the coming weeks and months.

Already, Joyce Davis, President and CEO of WAC Harrisburg, has contributed this op-ed.

To our sponsors below, we express gratitude for making the Conference possible. Thanks also to our think tank hosts at Brookings, Carnegie Endowment, CSIS, and Peterson Institute, as well as to our diplomatic reception hosts, the Spanish and Czech ambassadors and Kurdistan Regional Government representative.

We will share video clips of our program with the Council network shortly. From the Leadership Day workshops, we will also share presentations; the first, below, is from Caryn Stein, VP of Network for Good, on innovative fundraising.

To end on a hopeful note for the future, see the photo of our scholarship undergraduate scholarship recipients with WACA Board Director Carlos Alvarez (center).  In solidarity, their hearts and ours go out to Paris.

With appreciation,

Bill Clifford,
President and CEO

Thank You to Our Generous Sponsors: