From the Secretary of the Churchill Institution of East Africa and Chief Organizer of the Global Roundtable Leadership Discussion Series 2021
On July 4, 2021, the Churchill Institution of East Africa will celebrate its fourth anniversary. What began as a small-sized traveling exhibition and special event service in late 2015, evolved into a registered independent trust in 2017, and has since since blossomed into one of the most important tourism stakeholders in the East African Community. The Churchill Institution is a proud member of the international Churchill community. We are devoted to celebrating the distinguished career and extraordinary legacy of The Rt Hon Sir Winston S. Churchill.
Over the course of the past four years, we have strived to support fully a new global platform in collaboration with kindred institutions. In 2020, with our colleagues at America's National Churchill Museum, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri USA, we have started to explore through shared scholarship resources, research support, and digital media programs the potential of a truly global outreach.
We remain committed to fostering greater diversity and equity amongst our constituents, as well as to facilitating greater accessibility to all of our programs.
As a steward and ambassador of cultural connections, the Churchill Institution's work helps to build bridges of mutual respect and understanding and presents diversity of the world cultures and the joy of creativity with accuracy, insight, and reverence.
Established under the name of Sir Winston Churchill, who traveled to Uganda in 1907 as one of Uganda's early tourists, the Churchill Institution is now developing our national and African identity and shared heritage which is rooted in exploration, innovation, and our own unique African style. That process is informed by our past and continues today even as we look to the future.
Thank you for participating in Global Churchill Leadership Roundtable annual discussion series.
We are very appreciative of your flexibility, patience, and understanding as we have worked through the many challenges of planning and implementing an entirely online event of this kind. While we recognize the important of face-to-face meetings, we maintain that the health and safety of our participants must come first. At the same time, we are engaged and excited about the ways in which technology can bring us together.
This year, participants at the Churchill Institution will have opportunities to interact with fellow participants through networking sessions and social events. In the virtual world, we are very grateful to our colleagues at the America's National Churchill Museum for volunteering to share their online outreach with us. This engagement will be organized annually (every last Friday and Saturday in April) to bring leaders from leading Churchill organizations and other like-minded institutions as well as individuals to discuss leadership and other important world issues.
Please be sure to keep in mind, as you look through the schedule, that all times are listed in East African standard time and please be sure to adjust your schedule accordingly. If you are unable to attend a session at its scheduled time, no worries. Sessions will be recorded and available for viewing on-demand soon after the original webinar. The annual Roundtable discussion series will remain a crucial opportunity for strengthening our core values while serving the international Churchill community.
The GCLR 2021 Virtual Annual Roundtable brings together the many gifts and perspectives of participants. Together, our unique backgrounds and contributions form the core of our strength as a global (Churchillian) community.
Thank you for being a part of history and have fun!
Sincerely,
Ashadhu Ingram Ssenkubuge, Secretary, Churchill Institution
This program is free and open to the public but registration is required. Registration will remain open throughout the event.
Please note that all times are in East African Time (EAT), click on each time range to view your local time.
Q&A will be available for each session via live text chat both during and after the session broadcast. "Hallway Conversations" chats will be available for 15 minutes immediately following each session.
4:00 pm-4:30 pm (EAT) Welcoming remarks by Ashadhu Ingram Ssenkubuge, Secretary of the Churchill Institution of East Africa (CI) and the acting Director of the Winston Churchill Center for Heritage, Culture and Museum Studies, Mutessa I Royal University (MRU) in Kampala, Uganda
Founding stories of the Churchill Institution of East Africa and America's National Churchill Museum by Ashadhu Ingram Ssenkubuge and Timothy Riley
4:30 pm-6:20 pm (EAT) Session One – Museums in 2021 and Beyond: The Future of Our Past
Chair: Timothy Riley, Sandra L. and Monroe E. Trout Director and Chief Curator, America's National Churchill Museum at Westminster College, Missouri, USA
Participants:
Dr. Melanie Adams, Director, Anacostia Community Museum, Washington DC, USA
Allen Packwood OBE, Director Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, UK
6:25 pm-7:00 pm (EAT) Session Two – Issues of Global Security: "Are we all in this together?"
Co-Chairs: Timothy Riley and Ashadhu Ingram Ssenkubge
Participants:
Byron S. Bagby, U.S. Army Major General (Retired), USA
4:00 pm-4:15 pm (EAT) Welcoming remarks by Ashadhu Ingram Ssenkubuge, Secretary CI and the acting Director of the Winston Churchill Center for Heritage, Culture and Museum Studies at MRU
4:15-6:20pm (EAT) Session One – Leadership: Learning From Others
Co-Chairs: Ashadhu Ingram Ssenkubuge and Timothy Riley
Presentations:
Leadership: Learning from Others (session overview) – Elisebeth Checkel, President, Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Churchill Society of Edmonton, Canada
The Other Club in Auckland: Interesting Story of the Churchill Dining Club New Zealand – Gary Russell, Representative, Churchill Society of New Zealand
Educational Churchill: The Churchill Society of Edmonton – Robert Chaffee, Executive Secretary, The Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Churchill Society of Edmonton, Canada
6:25 pm-7:00 pm (EAT) Session Two – Lessons in Leadership from Churchill for Today's Challenges
A keynote address from U.S. Navy Vice Admiral (Retired) Michael T. Franken followed by a Q&A Session.
Apr 30, Sessions One and Two moderator.
Timothy Riley serves as the Sandra L. and Monroe E. Trout Director and Chief Curator for America's National Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. During his 25-year career, he has served as a education and curatorial assistant at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and worked at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he later served as the founding director of The Trout Museum of Art. He is a contributing editor for Finest Hour, the journal of the International Churchill Society. Riley was inducted into the Association of Churchill Fellows of Westminster College in 2016.
Apr 30, Sessions One and Two. Topics: museums in the 21st century; museum interpretation and engagement strategies; exhibit design; storytelling.
Dr. Melanie A. Adams is the director of the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum. With more than 25 years of community engagement experience in museums and higher education, she is dedicated to bringing stakeholders together to address relevant community issues.
Before joining the Smithsonian, Dr. Adams served as the Deputy Director for Learning Initiatives at the Minnesota Historical Society overseeing the state's 26 historic sites. Prior to Minnesota, she spent twelve years at the Missouri Historical Society as the Managing Director for Community Education and Events.
Dr. Adams is an active member of the museum community and served on the board of the American Association for State and Local History and is a former president of the Association of Midwest Museums. As a facilitator of workshops on topics related to museums and race, she helps professionals understand barriers to connecting with diverse audiences.
Apr 30, Sessions One and Two. Topics: collections of the Churchill Archives Centre; visitor experience; digitization, innovation, and interaction.
Allen Packwood BA, MPhil (Cantab) FRHistS, is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, and the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre. He is a qualified archivist and has worked at the Centre since September 1995, succeeding Dr Piers Brendon as Acting Keeper in 2001, before being appointed Director in 2002. Allen was co-curator of "Churchill and the Great Republic," a Library of Congress exhibition, which ran from February to July 2004, and of '"Churchill: The Power of Words," a display at the Morgan Library in New York in 2012.
Allen has also organized many events and lectures, including the successful conference on '"The Cold War and its Legacy," staged over two days at Churchill College in November 2009, and attended by senior representatives from China, Germany, Romania, the Russian Federation and the United States.
He is the author of several articles, co-wrote the publication accompanying the Library of Congress display, edited the recent guide to the Churchill Archives Centre, and has lectured extensively on Churchill in the United Kingdom and the United States. Allen is also a Churchill Fellow of Westminster College.
Apr 30, Session Two. Topics: global security; leadership.
Maj. General Byron S. Bagby served over 33 years service in the United States Army. His service includes the Pentagon on the Joint Staff in the Directorate of Strategic Plans and Policy, and on the Department of the Army Staff. A few of the key positions he's held are: Commandant of Joint Forces Staff College; Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, Europe; Chief of the Office of Military Cooperation in Cairo, Egypt; and Director of Operations for Joint Force Command – Brunssum (North Atlantic Treaty (Organization).
Byron S. Bagby is Managing Partner of BMB Solutions, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in executive leadership development and coaching, and strategy development. He serves on: The Board of Directors for Management Support Technology, Inc.; The Board of Advisors for Ryan Consulting Group (as Chairman); and the Board of Trustees of William Woods University. He served as a Global Leader in Residence for Westminster College, interacting with students and consulting with staff and faculty on a wide-range of issues and topics.
General Bagby is a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and is a combat veteran of operations in Grenada and Afghanistan. He earned a B.A. in Economics from Westminster College in 1978. Before serving on the faculty/staff at the United States Military Academy, he earned a master's degree from the University of North Carolina. He has earned many honors and decorations, including: the Westminster College Lifetime Alumni Achievement Award; the Fulton Public Schools Hall of Fame; and two Army Distinguished Service Medals. He is qualified as an Army Ranger and a Master Parachutist.
Apr 30, Introduction. May 1, Introduction, Sessions One and Two co-moderator.
Ashadhu Ingram Ssenkubuge is the Founder and Secretary of the Churchill Institution of East Africa, who, in his conviction, discovered that art, science and history are key elements to understanding culture and humanity. He founded the Churchill Institution to preserve historic collections and has expanded its scope and reach to examine and explore the preservation of the past to inform and inspire global communities of students, scholars, and citizens.
Ashadhu Ingram is also the chief organizer of the East African Tourism Symposium (Conference), promoter of the East African Tourism Trust Fund, and founder and the current Director of the Winston Churchill Center For Heritage Culture And Museum Studies, Muteesa I Royal University, Mengo Urban campus, Kampala, Uganda.
May 1, Sessions One and Two. Topics: leadership presence; diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Elisebeth Checkel is the President of the Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Churchill Society of Edmonton (Alberta, Canada), a position she has held since 2018. She was elected to the Board in 2017, but served previously as membership secretary in the 1990s. The Society is an organization devoted to making Churchill's wisdom, accomplishments, and leadership obvious to a new generation.
As a young woman from rural Alberta, Elisebeth Checkel had the life-changing opportunity to live at Churchill College and to work in Cambridge, England. Ever since, she has been inspired by the struggles and accomplishments of Sir Winston Churchill. Elisebeth continues to be fascinating that Churchill's words, so carefully crafted for specific audiences and tasks, have universal meaning that can help to make sense current challenges.
May 1, Sessions One and Two. Topics: leading in crisis: characteristics of Churchill's darkest days; Characteristics of favorite leaders.
Gary Russell JP, MSc, MPhil, BEd., has been active in environment and heritage protection for 35 years. He has completed heritage site economic feasibility studies for the European Union Intercultural programs, projects on Social and Cultural Capital Asset Impact Assessments, Environment Impact (Effect) Assessments and Safety & Security Assessment of heritage destinations.
A former chair of the Auckland Branch of the NZ Historic Places Trust, Russell has also served as an elected Northern Region NZHPT representative, national council member of the United Nations Association of NZ, and NZ Federation of Historic Societies member. Among many other organizations, he is an active member of the New Zealand Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill Dining Club in Auckland.
May 1, Sessions One and Two. Topics: Churchill and education; leadership.
Robert Chaffee is retired from a 36-year career in Air Traffic Services, where he worked as a Flight Service Specialist. He began reading history early in high school and studied History and Economics at the University of Alberta. He has long admired Winston Churchill’s career and legacy.
Chaffee’s longtime friend and former president of the Society, John Warnke, brought Bob into The Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Churchill Society of Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) as Archivist in 2016. At the end of 2018, Chaffee took on the Executive Secretary position.
May 1, Session Two. Topics: characteristics for successful global leadership today.
U.S. Navy Vice Admiral (Retired) Michael T. Franken, of Sioux City, IA, is a former United States Navy Officer. His final posting was as Deputy Director of Military Operations for the United States Africa Command. He is a graduate of the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska as well as the College of Physics at the Naval Postgraduate School.
Franken served as the U.S. Africa Command's deputy for military operations. His formative operational assignments were in guided missile destroyers. He was the first commanding officer of USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG81) and served on the USS King (DDG 41), USS Dahlgren (DDG 43) and USS Barry (DDG 52). As commodore, he commanded Destroyer Squadron 28 and Task Group 152.0 for the Eisenhower Strike Group.
In Washington, D.C., he served a fellowship in congressional affairs for the Office of the Secretary of the Navy; as the political-military chair in the Chief of Naval Operations' Executive Panel in Information, Plans and Strategy's Deep Blue staff; in the Assessments Division in support of Navy's representation in the Joint Requirements Oversight Council and in the Joint Staff's Joint Operations Division. He presented the worldwide orders book to Secretary Donald Rumsfeld from 2003 to 2005 and was the first military officer to serve as a legislative fellow for the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Admiral Franken was inducted into the Association of Churchill Fellows in March 2020.
“Leave the past to history especially as I propose to write that history myself.”
