David is the author of works of history and has talked to us 4 times.  He presented a power point presentation of his latest historical novel on the 1919 Paris Peace conference.  Using the characters of a previous historical novel that took place in 1900, David describes the Paris Peace Conference (that effected conditions in Europe and the Middle East for the next 100 years up to the present 2015) with clarity as if you were there.  Paris in 1801, 1919, 1945 and 2015 were all different.  The personalities of Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George of Britain, and Orlando of Italy; plus Sec. of State Lansing, his two Dulles nephews (in their 20’s), Col. Lawrence of Arabia, and Prince Feisal (who claims his ancestors had been Sharifs of Mecca for 900 years, with kings being far beneath his family) produces a stew that David sorts out.

Michael O’Hanlon has been a senior fellow at Brookings for 21 years, Specializing in national security. His degrees are from Princeton in physics and a PhD in public and international affairs.  In the last 2 administrations he has made many trips to the Middle East and talked about the complications in Syria, which he says is slow motion genocide. Half the population of Syria is displaced and are refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Greece and on their way to the EU. Secretary Kerry is trying to put together a shared group to replace Assad. With no borders, he wants to form a confederation model. With the US having so little current skin in the situation – Good Luck

Cornerstone Montgomery is the largest provider of mental health and co-occurring substance use disorders programming, housing, treatment and supports in Montgomery County, MD.  Serving more than 2,400 youth and adults in their 86 locations, Cornerstone helps people regain their lives through outpatient mental health and somatic health care, employment services, life skills training as well as transitional and permanent supported housing.  One in 17 have mental illness among those with low income, and 50% of those have substance abuse and have a 25% shorter life spanned. Cornerstone has 24 hour group homes with 212 beds and 3 out patient crises houses (for 7 to 10 day stays) and a staff of 280

The persons in the attached photo left to right are Krystina Bigby (Barwood Taxi),Bruce Fowler (RCNB), Anne Peyer (Cornerstone), Cari Cho(CEO Cornerstone).