Daniel J. Smith, Ph.D
  Interim Director, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center

Daniel Smith hails from Anaconda. He served as Executive Assistant to the President of the University of Montana and played an instrumental role in the creation of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center when it was founded. Dan's diverse background includes ordination as a Catholic Priest, working as Director of Education and Director of Occupational Health Services at St. Patrick Hospital, and heading his own human resource consultant firm.

Email: dan.smith@mso.umt.edu
Phone: 406-243-6778 

  Beth A. Diettert
  Budget Associate, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center

Beth first started with the Mansfield Center in 1996 when she moved to Missoula from Southern California. Before that, she worked for Sony Engineering in Cypress, California. Beth is in charge of managing the grants for the Mansfield Center.

    

Email: beth.diettert@mso.umt.edu  
Phone: 406-243-2988 

  

   Otto Koester

   Associate Director, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center 

Lecturer, Princeton University (1974-76); Deputy Director, Salzburg Seminar, (1984-88); Program Officer,  United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC (1989-93); Director of Grantwriting, The University of Montana (2003-2010).

Co-Director of the Confucius Institute. Teaching and research interests in international negotiation and conflict management, esp. United States and China. Peace Corps Volunteer (1968-70).

Email: otto.koester@mso.umt.edu
Phone: (406) 243-2050

   Don Loranger
   Director, Defense Critical Language and Culture Program
   Major General (USAF, Ret.)

General Loranger retired after thirty-years of USAF service as an operational pilot and specialist in US national security policy. He served as the Deputy POLAD, SACEUR and commanded three different air force bases: Little Rock AFB, AR; Rhein-Main AB, Germany; and Canon AFB, NM. He also directed Provide Promise, the humanitarian aerial resupply of Eastern Bosnia (1992-1994) and served as commander of Joint Task Force/Southwest Asia (Iraqi no-fly zone enforcement).  

Email: don.loranger@mso.umt.edu
Phone: (406) 243-3610    
 

  Deena Mansour
   Associate Director, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center 

Deena Mansour manages the Public Policy and Leadership Initiative, the Vietnam Affairs Program, the Study of the U.S. Institute on Global Environmental Issues, and other international exchange initiatives. She has extensive programmatic expertise in educational exchange programs. A former foreign service officer in the public affairs cone, she has worked in Southeast Asia and on environmental issues. Prior to that, she arranged Department of State international exchange programs with the Institute of International Education in Washington, D.C.   She has also worked in marketing and community outreach for a Dow Jones community newspaper. Deena has worked or studied in nearly 40 countries.

Email: deena.mansour@mso.umt.edu
Phone: (406) 243-2713 

 Chen Suhan
 Assistant Director, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center
 Excutive Director, Confucius Institute

 M.A. Journalism - The University of Montana, 2009
 M.A. Asia Pacific Studies - Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan, 2006
 B.A. Journalism - Jilin University, China, 2003
 

Ms. Chen Suhan is a Beijing native that is working with the Confucius Institute at The Mansfield Center as the Excutive Director. Ms. Chen worked as an editor of international news for China Central Television and a reporter in training for the Science Department of Guangming Daily prior to her education in Japan and the U.S. She is fluent in English, Japanese and Chinese. She has been the Executive Vice President of the Chinese Students Association at the University of Montana, incharge of community outreach and culture education for K-12 schools in the Missoula School District. She also represented the University of Montana in leading the Montana Rocky Mountain Ballet Theater to China as a pre-Olympic Sino-US exchange program in 2008  and for four performances at Shanghai Expo in 2010.

 E-mail:  suhan.chen@mso.umt.edu

 Phone: (406) 243-2895 

  Kimberly A. Maynard
  Mansfield Fellow in International Affairs  Ph.D., International Affairs, The Union Institute 

 Kim Maynard joined the Mansfield Center as its first Mansfield Fellow in International Affairs in November 2011. She has a unique combination of teaching, research,  writing and field experience on problems of international development, humanitarian assistance, analysis of conflict, post-conflict  recovery, and practical means for restoring stability and peace. She has worked for more than 20 years as a consultant for the U.S. Department of State and Agency for International Development, World Bank, UN agencies, and numerous international NGOs. Dr. Maynard has taught graduate classes at American University and  Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and at the Mansfield Center conducts research, gives occasional lectures, leads workshops, and currently teaches a course on  transitions from war to peace.

E-mail: kimberly.maynard@mso.umt.edu

   Caitlin Sager
   Student Staffer, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center  

  B.A., East Asian Studies, The University of Montana, In Progress
  Minor, Chinese, The University of Montana, In Progress
  Minor, Communications, The University of Montana, In Progress

Caitlin is a student staffer assisting with programs throughout the Mansfield Center and the Confucius Institute. She recently returned from a year long exchange with the Shanghai International Studies University. A senior, her area of study focuses on Chinese language, culture and politics.

 

  James Park Taylor
  Director, Mansfield Legal Reform Initiative

  J.D University of Montana,

James Park Taylor is a criminal defense lawyer in private practice in Missoula.  He graduated with honors from the University of Montana School of Law in 1980.  He is a faculty affiliate with the UM School of Law as their Coordinator of International Opportunities, and with the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center as their Director of the Legal Reform Initiative.  He is a life member of the Montana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and a former Chairman of the Montana Public Defender Commission.  From 2008 to 2010, he worked in China on behalf of the Mansfield Center on a criminal justice project training law professors, criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and police officers. He has also trained lawyers in Georgia, England, Ireland, Hungary, India, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.  In 2011 he did a Fulbright Specialist placement at the University of Pecs in Hungary, and is preparing now for his second Fulbright Specialist placement, which will either be in Nepal or Peru.

 E-mail:  james.taylor@mso.umt.edu

  Dr. Dane Scott
  Director, Mansfield Ethics and Public Affairs Program

  PhD., Vanderbilt University, Philosophy
  M.A., Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, CA), Philisohical Theology   
  B.S., University of California, Riverside

 Dr. Scott specializes in bioethics, environmental ethics, and agricultural and food ethics, and is also interested in the philosophy of technology, American pragmatism, and the philosophy of religion. E-mail: dane.scott@mso.umt.edu 
Phone: 406-243-6632

  Kelsey Stamm
   Program Manager, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center 

   M.A., Political Science, University of Montana
   B.A., Political Science, Montana State University
   Minor, Women's Studies, Montana State University

Kelsey manages the American Youth Leadership Program in Cambodia and the Economic Empowerment Project, and assists with other international exchange programs through the Mansfield Center. Kelsey is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from El Salvador, where she worked with local government and non-profits to improve municipal services and community participation in development projects. Upon her return to the US, she worked as a grant writer and outreach coordinator for international conservation non-profit, Ecology Project International (EPI). Kelsey has also spent time researching migration in Mexico and continues to study issues within international development and human rights.  

 Email:  kelsey.stamm@umontana.edu 
Phone: 406-243-2838
Fax: 406-243-2181

 
  Terry Weidner
   Mansfield Senior Fellow in Asian Affairs

  Ph.D., University of California, Davis, Chinese History
  M.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  B.A., St. Lawrence University     
  Associate Director, International Programs, University of Kansas, 1991-1998 
  Director, Asian Affairs Center and Missouri International Training Center, University of Missouri, 1998-2003 
  Director, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, 2003-2012
  Professor, Department of Political Science

Proficient in Chinese; worked as political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing; worked as a Chinese political and economic analyst for the Foreign Broadcast Information Service in Washington, DC.; Academic interests include Chinese political economy, business, and U.S.-China relations.

E-mail: terry.weidner@umontana.edu 
Phone: (406) 243-2281
Fax: (406) 243-2181