The U.S. Presidential Election and Its Impact on Transatlantic Relations

Pedro Rodríguez

Pedro Rodríguez is an Associate Professor in the International Relations Department at Universidad Pontificia Comillas ICAI-ICADE. He graduated with a degree in Journalism from UCM with Premio Extraordinario Fin de Carrera, for the highest GPA among the graduates in the class of 1988. He also holds a Master´s degree ABC-UCM. Pedro was a Fulbright scholar and received M.A. in International Relations & Mass Media at Georgetown University, 1996. His doctoral thesis is on the Political Communication of the White House. As a journalist he has served 20 years as a correspondent for Diario ABC in Washington D.C. He is now an International Affairs columnist and an analyst for various media platforms. In addition to being an author for specialized academic journals, he writes regularly for the Instituto Franklin-UAH’s blog Diálogo Atlántico. He has also collaborated with Instituto Ortega y Gasset, Casa América, World Bank, Llorente & Cuenca, Instituto Atlántico de Gobierno, Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales and the Aspen Institute in Spain as well as teaching participation in summer courses in various universities. He has joined the research group UNISCI and he is a member of the Club of Rome, Spanish Chapter.

Alan D. Solomont

Alan D. Solomont, former United States ambassador to Spain and Andorra and a lifelong social and political activist, serves as the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. Before his posting to Madrid, Solomont chaired the bipartisan board of directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that oversees such domestic service programs as AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, VISTA and Senior Corps. He was first appointed to the board by President Clinton in 2000, reappointed by President George W. Bush in 2007 and elected chair in 2009. Like President Obama, who nominated him for the ambassadorship in the summer of 2009, Solomont as a young man worked as a community organizer, in the city of Lowell, Mass. Throughout his career, Solomont has embraced the ability of political activism and public service to benefit society. After graduating from Tufts with a B.A. in political science and urban studies, Solomont made his first trip to Spain on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for postgraduate study and travel abroad. He returned to his native Massachusetts to work as a community organizer in Lowell. His mother was a nurse at Boston City Hospital, and he earned a B.S. in nursing from the University of Lowell (now the University of Massachusetts Lowell) in 1977. Solomont spent much of his professional career in the health- and elder-care arenas. He built a network of elder-care facilities in New England as chair of Solomont Bailis Ventures. He invested in early-stage health-care companies and cofounded HouseWorks, a home-care company that helps seniors remain independent. He was also the founder and managing director of Angel Healthcare Investors. A longtime leader in the Democratic Party, Solomont got his first exposure to national politics as an undergraduate in 1968, when he worked as a page during the tumultuous Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Later, he served as the party’s national finance chair from 1997 to 1998, and he was an early supporter of Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency. He played key roles in the presidential campaigns of John Kerry, Al Gore, Bill Clinton and Michael Dukakis. Through the years, Solomont has remained deeply involved in Tufts. A trustee emeritus of the university, Solomont was the founding chair of the Tisch College board of advisors. To mark the 10th anniversary of the college in 2011, his friends and colleagues endowed the Alan D. Solomont Lecture in recognition of his leadership as an active citizen. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the first woman speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, gave the inaugural lecture. Other speakers have included United States Congressman and civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis.

Gregory J. Wawro

Gregory Wawro (Ph.D., Cornell, 1997) specializes in American politics (including Congress, elections, campaign finance, judicial politics, and political economy) and political methodology. He is the author of Legislative Entrepreneurship in the U.S. House of Representatives and co-author (with Eric Schickler) of Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the United States Senate, which is an historical analysis of the causes and consequences of filibusters. He has published articles in The American Journal of Political Science, The Annual Review of Political Science, Critical Review, Legislative Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Law Economics and Organization, and Political Analysis. His academic awards include the Richard J. Fenno Prize for best book in legislative studies in 2006, the E.E. Schattschneider Award, the Milton J. Esman Award, the CQ Prize for best paper presented in the Legislative Studies section at the 2002 APSA meeting, a Mellon Foundation Graduate Fellowship, and a John M. Olin Faculty Fellowship. He has been a visiting scholar at the Center for Basic Research in the Social Sciences at Harvard University.

Carlos Correcha-Price

An expert in strategic corporate communications, public affairs, image & reputation and crisis management & preparedness, Carlos has vast experience working in both Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic market. As LLYC's U.S. CEO, he leads the firm's operations in its Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. locations, overseeing key client accounts and expanding the company's footprint. He holds degrees in Liberal Studies (with a specialization in Public Relations and Advertising), Marketing and Political Science from the University of Central Florida. Carlos is also a member of the Intrahealth Board of Directors and a member of the Advisory Board for the Hispanic Public Relations Association.