She traveled to the Middle East in 2016 to contribute to the discourse shaping 21st century journalism at the World Media Summit in Doha, Qatar. She has a passion for developing the next generation of journalists and broadening the skills of veteran journalists. She founded the "Diverse Social Media Editors & Digital Journalists" Facebook Group, a platform for education, advocacy and training for journalists of color. She has a dual bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a master’s degree from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.
Before retiring in 2009 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel after twenty-one years of service in the US Air Force, Atallah's military career included aviation, special operations, intelligence, and counterterrorism. In his last military posting, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Africa Counterterrorism Director (2003-09), while concurrently holding positions as East Africa Director (2003-07) and Country Director for Morocco and Tunisia (2007-09).
From 2015 to 2017 he advised the Moroccan Government in the context of the Presidencies of the UN Climate Conferences COP21 in Paris and COP22 in Marrakech. He is the co-founder of the Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe (FACE) and he has been advising for the past 20 years the aluminium industries of the GCC and of Russia.
He has more than eight years of experience focusing on the North Africa and Sahel regions. His extensive experience supporting governmental and non-governmental organizations includes the areas of international development, security, countering violent extremism, and counter-terrorism. Mr. Lyammouri has elaborated more than 200 in-depth research reports that cultivate deeper understanding of regional and domestic challenges.
He is also a technologist, launching five technology brands over three technology cycles, most recently a Silicon Valley artificial intelligence company in 2016. Outside of work, Richard travels two or three times each month from New York City to San Francisco to care for his father, an Alzheimer’s patient, and is an AARP Caregiving Champion and an Alzheimer’s Association Celebrity Champion. He is also an ambassador for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation’s Hidden Heroes campaign that focuses on caregivers in military families.
He was IOM’s original focal point for the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime, and was a founding member of the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UNGIFT). Former chairman of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Council on Illicit Trade, current member of the WEF’s Board on the future of migration, he lectures extensively on human trafficking and migrant protection.
Former CEO of Angola Climate Carbon, focused in the carbon transaction intermediation and project management in Africa, former Standard Bank director (2010-11) responsible for the climate change product strategy in Angola, former CEO of Genius Ambiente (2008-2009). Founder and CEO of Forestland, SGPS (2005-08), Adviser of Portuguese Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (2002-04).
where she focuses on leadership development programming designed to advance global engagement on both sides of the Atlantic. Adviser and speaker on subnational engagement and city international diplomacy strategies, U.S. politics, U.S. transatlantic relations, women empowerment, political and social inclusion, she served as the U.S. State Department’s first-ever Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs (2010-13), and worked on cooperation with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), RIO+20 and COP16, COP17 and COP18.
He is at present studying consumption patterns of the world emerging middle-class, for the design and branding of quality goods affordable to them. A former elected member of the Permanent Group of Experts of the Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, at the WTO, Geneva, he also acted as negotiator for the Fourth Protocol of the Agreement on Telecommunications, after the Uruguay Round, and still serves in trade delegations involving Brazil.
