Speakers for the 2023 Barzinji Institute Conference
Maria Balinska
Maria Balinska is the Executive Director of the US UK Fulbright Commission. Educated in the US and in Europe, she joined the BBC in London in 1991, where she worked until 2009 as a producer and then senior editor focusing on international affairs. She returned to the US in 2009 on a Nieman fellowship at Harvard and subsequently founded Latitude News, an experiment in reporting America’s links with the rest of the world in new ways. In 2014 Maria joined the launch team of The Conversation US, a non-profit digital daily where the content is authored by academics and edited by journalists for the general public. For four years she was The Conversation US’s Editor-in-Chief, based in Boston. Maria is also the author of The Bagel: the surprising history of a modest bread (Yale 2008), described by the American Scholar as a “gem of culinary and social reportage” and the New York Times as a “scrumptious book.”
Alberto Martinetti
Alberto Martinetti (1985) is an Associate Professor in Maintenance Engineering and Humanitarian Engineering within the department of Design, Production and Management at the University of Twente. He worked for the Polytechnic of Turin and for the University of Turin. He holds a Master’s degree in Geo-resources and Geo-technologies Engineering and a Ph.D. in Safety and Health at the Polytechnic of Turin in 2013 on the Prevention through Design approach in mining activities.
Alberto is a member of the quarter maker team “Humanitarian Engineering” at the UT for developing a MSc 120 EC programme for improving people’s lives with appropriate and sustainable technology. He is also chairman and founder of the NGO “Edubox”, a self-contained container for underserved communities education and training.
His research focuses on poverty eradication and improving underserved communities’ live condition.
Dr. M. Yaqub Mirza
Dr. M. Yaqub Mirza is President and CEO of Sterling Management Group.
Dr. Mirza is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Amana Mutual Funds (assets nearly $5.50 Billion). He is a member of the Board of Directors, University Islamic Financial Corporation, a banking subsidiary and a former member of the Board of Trustees, George Mason University Foundation, Inc.
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Shenandoah University. In addition, he is a member of the Executive and Investment Endowment Committee and Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee.
Dr. Mirza is President and Trustee of Center for Islam in the Contemporary World at Shenandoah University.
He is also a member of the Council of Advisors, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University.
He is the author of Five Pillars of Prosperity: Essentials of Faith-Based Wealth Building (White Cloud Press, 2014). Also, co-author of Heavenly Returns What the Abrahamic Faiths Teach Us about Financial and Spiritual Well-Being, Amazon 2022.
Dr. Mirza holds a Ph.D. in Physics and M.A. in Teaching Science from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D.
Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., became Shenandoah University’s 16th president on July 1, 2008. She is the institution’s first female president since its founding in 1875. She came to Shenandoah in 2001, as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, became vice president for Academic Affairs in 2002 and was named senior vice president in 2006. She holds a faculty appointment as professor of political science and still teaches a course each year. Previously, Dr. Fitzsimmons was a tenured faculty member and faculty leader at the University of Redlands in Redlands, CA.
As president of Shenandoah University, she leads an institution of 4,100 students, and 900 faculty and staff at its 129-acre site in Winchester, Va., and sites in Loudoun, Fairfax, and Clarke Counties, Va. Virginia Business has featured President Fitzsimmons twice in its Virginia 500 Power List, and she was featured in 2022 as one of the Virginia Business Women in Leadership Awardees.
Dr. Fitzsimmons serves on the board of directors of the publicly-traded company Shentel (Shenandoah Telecommunications, Inc.) where she is the Lead Independent Director and the Chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee. She also serves on the Region 8 GoVirginia board. Fitzsimmons is a Past-President of the ODAC Conference and a Past-Chair of the Council of Independent Colleges in VA. As past President, she remains very involved at NAICU (the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities). She also serves on the board of the Loudoun Education Foundation and Opportunity Scholars; she is a member of the International Women’s Forum of DC, and 100 Women Strong of Loudoun County. Currently, she is the Presidential Sponsor of the VA Women’s Network.
Her undergraduate degree in politics is from Princeton University, magna cum laude, and her master’s and doctoral degrees are from Stanford University in, respectively, Latin American studies and political science.
President Fitzsimmons lives in Winchester, VA, with her husband, Knox Singleton. Combined they share seven children.
Christine Shiau
Christine Shiau is the Executive Director of the Stevens Initiative at the Aspen Institute. She drives vision and performance, leading strategy and program development and cultivating global partnerships to grow a resilient ecosystem for technology-enabled exchanges. She blends strategic insight with creativity to establish virtual exchange as a cutting-edge field that builds global competencies and career readiness skills in youth. Christine sits on the board of the Alliance for International Exchange, AMP Global Youth, and Podium Education. She joined the Initiative following a career in the public and private sectors. Christine graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago with a BS in accounting and a minor in marketing. She received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland.