Speakers

Martin Oppus, representing the US Department of State, is a National Security Affairs Fellow for the academic year 2018–19 at the Hoover Institution.

Martin Oppus joined the Department of State in March 2000. A career diplomat, he was most recently the deputy consular chief at the US Consulate General in Mumbai, India—one of the busiest consular sections in the Foreign Service. Prior to that, he served as the office director for the Bureau of Public Affairs' Office of Broadcast Services in Washington, DC, where he helped increase its digital distribution capacity. As a consular officer, he has served at the US Embassy in Manila and at the US consulates general in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Guadalajara, Mexico. Before joining the State Department, he was a producer at PDI/DreamWorks Animation in California. He holds a bachelor of arts in radio/TV from San Jose State University and considers San Jose, California, home.

His research at the Hoover Institution will focus on Pacific Rim issues.

Bill oversees all Population Media Center activity and travels around the world for current and new program development. Since 2008, Bill has also served as Chair and CEO of Population Institute in Washington, DC, which works in partnership with Population Media Center.  He has more than 40 years of experience working in the field of reproductive health, including two decades of experience with social and behavior change communications.  He holds BA from Amherst College and a Master of Philosophy in Biology from Yale University.

James Sheehan is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities at Stanford, a professor of history, and an FSI senior fellow by courtesy. He is an expert on the history of modern Europe. He has written widely on the history of Germany, including four books and many articles. His most recent book on Germany is Museums in the German Art World: From the End of the Old Regime to the Rise of Modernism (Oxford Press, 2000). He has recently written a new book about war and the European state in the 20th century, Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? addressing the transformation of Europe's states from military to cilivian actors, interested primarily in economic growth, prosperity, and security. His other recent publications are chapters on "Democracy" and "Political History," which appear in the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2002), and a chapter on "Germany," which appears in The Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Colonel Paul Krattiger, representing the US Army, is a National Security Affairs Fellow for the academic year 2018–19 at the Hoover Institution.

Paul graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1997 with a bachelor of science degree in economics. He was commissioned as an armor officer and served assignments throughout the continental United States and Germany and operational assignments in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Korea. Paul commanded the 1st Battalion, 5th US Cavalry in the 1st Cavalry Division from 2014-2016.  Prior to his fellowship at Hoover, he served as the Armor Branch Chief in the US Army Human Resources Command, managing almost four thousand armor officers in the active army.

He earned a master of engineering management from Northwestern University and then served as an instructor and later assistant professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at the US Military Academy.

His research at the Hoover Institution will focus on the role of the US Education System and its impact on National Security.

Upon completion of his fellowship, Paul will assume command of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1stInfantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas.

Frank M. Pitre, a San Francisco native, earned his B.S., Cum Laude, in Business Administration and his J.D. from the University of San Francisco. While at USF, Pitre served a legal externship with the California Supreme Court.

Considered to be one of the outstanding trial lawyers in areas of personal injury/wrongful death, consumer fraud and commercial torts, Pitre has won millions of dollars for victims of injustice.

His skill as a trial lawyer has earned him recognition among his peers who have elected him as a member of the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers, American Board of Trial Advocates (Advocate), International Academy of Trial Lawyers, International Society of Barristers, and the National Board of Trial Advocacy.

Recently, he was appointed as Co-Lead Counsel on behalf of the victims of the North Bay Wild Fires to prosecute claims against PG&E for their mismanagement of electrical operations leading to 43 deaths, 100,000 people displaced, over 245,000 acres burned and more than 14,700 homes and structures destroyed.  In Re: California North Bay Fire Cases, JCCP Action No. 4955.

CHARLES AND ELIZABETH PROTHRO PROFESSOR IN MARINE SCIENCES