Shawnta Walcott
Pollster and Humanitarian Shawnta Regina Watson Walcott is a PhD candidate at Liberty University, a graduate of the Yale Divinity School, and the former Director of Communications for Zogby International. Walcott joined Zogby in 2003 and served as a surrogate analyst for President and CEO John Zogby. In addition to overseeing the production of client products, Walcott provided television and radio commentary on the 2004 NBC/Reuters Presidential polls conducted by Zogby. During her tenure, the firm’s client list included: the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Wall Street Journal Online, Reuters Newswire, NBC/Meet the Press, U.S. State Department-Iraq, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Kissinger McLarty Associates among others. Walcott’s polling acumen is enhanced by nearly twenty years of public remuneration and foreign policy experience that includes both remunerate and pro bono service. Walcott served as close of service director for the United States Peace Corps (Benin, West Africa 1994-1996).
She also worked overseas as the close of service director for the United States Peace Corps and as a faculty and board member of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University (2005-2009).
Walcott is a graduate of the University of Maryland College Park in Government and Politics with a concentration in French. At UMCP, she was inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Society and led a major student initiative that convinced the University of Maryland, Board of Regents to divest all holdings from apartheid-ruled South Africa. She returned to UMCP in 2010 to give the winter commencement address for the graduates of the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences. For more information please check out: http://yale.academia.edu/shawntawalcott
Phone: 202-374-4315
She also worked overseas as the close of service director for the United States Peace Corps and as a faculty and board member of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University (2005-2009).
Walcott is a graduate of the University of Maryland College Park in Government and Politics with a concentration in French. At UMCP, she was inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Society and led a major student initiative that convinced the University of Maryland, Board of Regents to divest all holdings from apartheid-ruled South Africa. She returned to UMCP in 2010 to give the winter commencement address for the graduates of the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences. For more information please check out: http://yale.academia.edu/shawntawalcott
Phone: 202-374-4315
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Talks by Shawnta Walcott
This week, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, and other congressional leaders will introduce legislation to address the violent disturbances erupting on college campuses where student protesters are calling for total divestment from Gaza. The fervent standoff between demonstrators and campus police has sparked a debate between scholars and ordinary Americans about anti-Semitism, hate speech, and violence. While the arch of justice and institutional sentiment sharply leans in support of Israel after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2024, hundreds of Jewish students at America’s finest colleges continue to report being attacked with racial slurs by protestors ‘calling out’ their affiliation with Judaism.
For those of us who participated in demonstrations against apartheid-ruled South Africa in the late 80s at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), the images in the media predict a gloomy outcome. In most of these instances (UCLA, Columbia…), the opposing sides seem too far apart in their negotiations. There is no respect for cultural differences, identity, or intellectualism from students and faculty calling for change.
The first significant student-led coalition at UMCP began in 1985 and ended after 12 months of visceral clashes between student protesters and campus police over the use of common areas. There was an ongoing dispute between protesters and administration officials over a makeshift shanty built on Mckeldin Mall (the graduate school library front yard). Students were arrested; K-9 dogs were used, and there was bloodshed. Three years later, the divestment coalition re-emerged from an editorial published in the Diamondback newspaper in the Fall semester of 1988 entitled, Wake Up, Speak Up calling for students to formally reject the university’s decision to invest in companies doing business in South Africa. In contrast to the first divestment attempt, there was a new coalition leader with a different perspective on social boundaries and public resistance. There was also a new and more tolerant administration.
There were traditional demonstrations on McKeldin Mall in the center of campus, candlelight vigils on Hornbake Plaza, a shanty town, and marches up and down campus drive at high noon. We also invited Mark Mathabane (the author of the New York Time-Bestseller, Kaffir Boy) to speak with us about growing up under apartheid rule. Our mentors were graduate students who were born in South Africa. They insisted that we meet with investment brokers in Washington, DC to seek out socially conscious investments of equal value to present to the University Board of Regents.
Like other campuses conducting similar campaigns over apartheid investiture (UM-Ann Arbor, UC-Berkely, and UT-Austin), we were inundated with requests for interviews from national reporters (like National Public Radio’s Mara Liasson) trying to figure out how far we were willing to go to change university policy. Eventually, we responded to the media by ‘turning up the heat’ on campus and occupying the Office of the President for two hours before UMCP President William Kirwan sent us a clear message that he was pro-divestment and in support of our coalition.
In the Spring of 1990 (just six months after the editorial appeared in the Diamondback) the Board of Regents voted to fully divest all holdings from its eleven campuses in the state of Maryland.
Three critical strategies helped us achieve our goal: 1) in the tradition of the civil rights movement, we used civil disobedience, and remained in constant contact with the campus administration and members of the Board of Regents; 2) we anticipated that law enforcement officers would attend our events and there were no arrests. There were serious threats of violence from counter-protesters, but no actual arrests were made; finally, 3) we were a minority-based organization (of less than 100 students) trying to effectuate change at a majority-white state university of nearly 40,000 students. To achieve our goal, we had to be conscious of racial politics and the kinship between our mission and the civil rights movement.
We were the mustard seed in Mathew 17: 20-21(NIV). As recorded in biblical scripture, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Shawnta Regina Watson Walcott is the author of the 1988 editorial Wake Up, Speak Up, and the President of the University of Maryland, College Park Divestment Coalition (1988-1990). She is most publicly noted for her testimony before Congress regarding the election count in Ohio while serving as director of communication for Zogby International during the 2004 US Presidential Election. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Honor Society. She holds graduate degrees from Yale Divinity School and Liberty University. Walcott returned to UMCP in 2011 to give the commencement address for the graduates in the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences.
177. (1) Any list of candidates for an election held pursuant to the provisions of article 60(2) shall designate not more than one of those candidates as a Presidential candidate. An elector voting at such an election in favour of a list shall be deemed to be also voting in favour of the Presidential candidate named in the list.
(2)A Presidential candidate shall be deemed to have been elected as President and shall be so declared by the Chairman of the Elections Commission—
(a) if he is the only Presidential candidate at the election; or
(b) where there are two or more Presidential candidates, if more votes are cast in favour of the list in which he is designated as Presidential candidate than in favour of any other list.
(3) Where no person is elected as President under paragraph (2) and where the votes cast in favour of each list are equal in number, or where the votes cast in favour of each of two or more lists are equal in number but greater than the number of votes cast in favour of any other list, the Chairman of the Elections Commission, acting in the presence of the Chancellor and of the public, shall by lot choose one of the lists in respect of which the votes are equal in either of the circumstances aforesaid and shall declare the Presidential candidate designated in that list to be duly elected as President.
ICS-Guyana data collection is intended to serve as the initial phase of what may become a policy information service and programmatic performance ratings. The findings are primarily qualitative and best used overtime to show social policy trends. The final results are most compatible with correlative data and substantive reviews on like topics (for example: program ratings take into consideration related content not explicitly mentioned in the report but of a similar nature).
I. Introduction
Latin American and Caribbean economic recoveries remain fragile, as multiple economic and geopolitical factors continue to stagnate their growth. These challenges include a rise of trade protectionism in the United States; a spillover of Venezuela’s political, economic and humanitarian crisis; policy uncertainty emerging from recent elections in Brazil and Mexico; and disruptions from natural disasters threatening Caribbean economies still recovering from the devastating impacts of the fall 2017 hurricanes. Strengthening institutions across the region has become a global priority because of the ancillary effects on sectoral growth in areas considered to be central pillars to development on a global scale (such as national security, social capital, checks and balances, transparency, public sector performance, property rights, corporate governance). According to the World Economic Forum: Global Competitive Report 2018, countries like Brazil are also facing a crisis in institutional development. Brazil is now ranked 72 among 140 countries (including those in Sub-Saharan Africa) whose overall competitiveness falls narrowly above most countries, predominantly due to its failing institutional structures. More specific shortcomings include: 1) declining growth and innovation and 2) the lack of good-will earned interest between stakeholders. As shown in the Global Competitiveness Index 4.0 (see graph), Brazil was ranked 69th among 135 countries selected for an overall performance review in 2017.
Guyana is in the midst of an economic transformation. The quaint nation between Latin and South America known for its mineral wealth has become a major attraction for derivative industries hoping to capitalize on recent discoveries in oil and natural gas. Returns from Liza field and Payara in the Stabroek Block have given analysts reasons to believe that the country’s GDP (3.446 billion USD) will be more than double its current post by the year 2025. In our first round of interviews for the Institute of Caribbean Studies (ICS), there were high expectations for growth and some concern. The not so distant memories of the previous government’s turmoil and the country’s socio-economic and cultural challenges have overshadowed the potential for a new narrative—and in some cases caused spectators to question the pragmatism of internal planning for external change. There were at least (10) salient issues that garnered qualitative consensus:
Distinguished faculty and alumni
Parents, friends, well-wishers and graduates of the class of 2010,
I am truly humbled by the opportunity to come before you this afternoon. To deliver the commencement address at the University of Maryland, College-Park, School of Behavioral and Social Sciences (my undergraduate alma mater) is not an assignment that I take lightly. So in advance, I thank you for your indulgence."
principal focus for the rebuilding effort would be decentralization. What plans have
been put in effect to facilitate decentralized development in terms of infrastructure
and government services? What types of industries are most appropriate for the
different parts of the country that have the most capacity to attract investment and
job creation?
MODERATOR: Shawnta Walcott, Pollster
INTRODUCTION: Kenneth Merten, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti
US-BASED CHAMBER REPRESENTATIVE:
François Guillaume, Jr., Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce of Florida
HAITI-BASED CHAMBER REPRESENTATIVE:
Reginald Boulos, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti (Invited);
Malherbe Dorvil, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the North of Haiti
(Invited); Roland Zenny, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Jacmel
We believe Barack Obama‘s election symbolizes a step towards the realization of our dreams deferred. His power to unite across race, political ideology, gender, and class represents an alternative that each of us should consider when devising solutions to the troubled dynamics of race and inequality throughout the world. The 2009 5th Annual Black Policy Conference, ―Victory in Unity: Realizing the Dream Deferred,‖ reflected an extraordinary moment in our nation‘s political landscape and a critical point in the future of the conference as a vibrant and sustainable institution at the Kennedy School. The 2009 conference brought together over 200 students, policymakers, and professionals in law, business, health, media, international affairs and education.
It’s really no surprise that elected officials hold sharply divergent views. So do their constituents. That was the message from Shawnta Watson Walcott, director of communications for polling firm Zogby International, when she spoke at the combined 2004 CSG-WEST and CSG State Trends and Leadership Forum last September.
But does dissent have to mean disrespect? State officials and academics discussed that question during a forum on legislative civility convened by CSG-WEST’s Western Legislative Futures Forum. Alaska Rep. Lesil McGuire, chair of the committee, asked participants: Can legislative civility survive polarized voters and contentious politics?
Papers by Shawnta Walcott
Haiti is on the cusp of its own realization. As the 2015 election process tilts towards crisis, a movement led by a fledgling group of opposition leaders in parliament known as the G6 works to thwart-off a “presidential decree.” A consensus between parliament and the administration can certainly buoyant the notion that a free and fair election is possible. However, the question remains as to whether or not unity will emerge.
Our proposal offers a methodology for a baseline study of attitudes among opinion leaders to identify the most salient issues facing the voting electorate. Leaders from nine major sectors as well as members of the Haitian diaspora will be asked to discuss domestic policy and candidate profiles in the context of their work and in relation to the global risk factors listed in the 2014 Global Risk Assessment Report released at the World Economic Forum. The data will be used to calibrate responses in PHASE II and III—and to seek support for election projects like the construct of a domestic observation mission to work in alignment with the Council Electoral Provisoire (CEP).
Books by Shawnta Walcott
This week, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, and other congressional leaders will introduce legislation to address the violent disturbances erupting on college campuses where student protesters are calling for total divestment from Gaza. The fervent standoff between demonstrators and campus police has sparked a debate between scholars and ordinary Americans about anti-Semitism, hate speech, and violence. While the arch of justice and institutional sentiment sharply leans in support of Israel after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2024, hundreds of Jewish students at America’s finest colleges continue to report being attacked with racial slurs by protestors ‘calling out’ their affiliation with Judaism.
For those of us who participated in demonstrations against apartheid-ruled South Africa in the late 80s at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), the images in the media predict a gloomy outcome. In most of these instances (UCLA, Columbia…), the opposing sides seem too far apart in their negotiations. There is no respect for cultural differences, identity, or intellectualism from students and faculty calling for change.
The first significant student-led coalition at UMCP began in 1985 and ended after 12 months of visceral clashes between student protesters and campus police over the use of common areas. There was an ongoing dispute between protesters and administration officials over a makeshift shanty built on Mckeldin Mall (the graduate school library front yard). Students were arrested; K-9 dogs were used, and there was bloodshed. Three years later, the divestment coalition re-emerged from an editorial published in the Diamondback newspaper in the Fall semester of 1988 entitled, Wake Up, Speak Up calling for students to formally reject the university’s decision to invest in companies doing business in South Africa. In contrast to the first divestment attempt, there was a new coalition leader with a different perspective on social boundaries and public resistance. There was also a new and more tolerant administration.
There were traditional demonstrations on McKeldin Mall in the center of campus, candlelight vigils on Hornbake Plaza, a shanty town, and marches up and down campus drive at high noon. We also invited Mark Mathabane (the author of the New York Time-Bestseller, Kaffir Boy) to speak with us about growing up under apartheid rule. Our mentors were graduate students who were born in South Africa. They insisted that we meet with investment brokers in Washington, DC to seek out socially conscious investments of equal value to present to the University Board of Regents.
Like other campuses conducting similar campaigns over apartheid investiture (UM-Ann Arbor, UC-Berkely, and UT-Austin), we were inundated with requests for interviews from national reporters (like National Public Radio’s Mara Liasson) trying to figure out how far we were willing to go to change university policy. Eventually, we responded to the media by ‘turning up the heat’ on campus and occupying the Office of the President for two hours before UMCP President William Kirwan sent us a clear message that he was pro-divestment and in support of our coalition.
In the Spring of 1990 (just six months after the editorial appeared in the Diamondback) the Board of Regents voted to fully divest all holdings from its eleven campuses in the state of Maryland.
Three critical strategies helped us achieve our goal: 1) in the tradition of the civil rights movement, we used civil disobedience, and remained in constant contact with the campus administration and members of the Board of Regents; 2) we anticipated that law enforcement officers would attend our events and there were no arrests. There were serious threats of violence from counter-protesters, but no actual arrests were made; finally, 3) we were a minority-based organization (of less than 100 students) trying to effectuate change at a majority-white state university of nearly 40,000 students. To achieve our goal, we had to be conscious of racial politics and the kinship between our mission and the civil rights movement.
We were the mustard seed in Mathew 17: 20-21(NIV). As recorded in biblical scripture, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Shawnta Regina Watson Walcott is the author of the 1988 editorial Wake Up, Speak Up, and the President of the University of Maryland, College Park Divestment Coalition (1988-1990). She is most publicly noted for her testimony before Congress regarding the election count in Ohio while serving as director of communication for Zogby International during the 2004 US Presidential Election. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Honor Society. She holds graduate degrees from Yale Divinity School and Liberty University. Walcott returned to UMCP in 2011 to give the commencement address for the graduates in the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences.
177. (1) Any list of candidates for an election held pursuant to the provisions of article 60(2) shall designate not more than one of those candidates as a Presidential candidate. An elector voting at such an election in favour of a list shall be deemed to be also voting in favour of the Presidential candidate named in the list.
(2)A Presidential candidate shall be deemed to have been elected as President and shall be so declared by the Chairman of the Elections Commission—
(a) if he is the only Presidential candidate at the election; or
(b) where there are two or more Presidential candidates, if more votes are cast in favour of the list in which he is designated as Presidential candidate than in favour of any other list.
(3) Where no person is elected as President under paragraph (2) and where the votes cast in favour of each list are equal in number, or where the votes cast in favour of each of two or more lists are equal in number but greater than the number of votes cast in favour of any other list, the Chairman of the Elections Commission, acting in the presence of the Chancellor and of the public, shall by lot choose one of the lists in respect of which the votes are equal in either of the circumstances aforesaid and shall declare the Presidential candidate designated in that list to be duly elected as President.
ICS-Guyana data collection is intended to serve as the initial phase of what may become a policy information service and programmatic performance ratings. The findings are primarily qualitative and best used overtime to show social policy trends. The final results are most compatible with correlative data and substantive reviews on like topics (for example: program ratings take into consideration related content not explicitly mentioned in the report but of a similar nature).
I. Introduction
Latin American and Caribbean economic recoveries remain fragile, as multiple economic and geopolitical factors continue to stagnate their growth. These challenges include a rise of trade protectionism in the United States; a spillover of Venezuela’s political, economic and humanitarian crisis; policy uncertainty emerging from recent elections in Brazil and Mexico; and disruptions from natural disasters threatening Caribbean economies still recovering from the devastating impacts of the fall 2017 hurricanes. Strengthening institutions across the region has become a global priority because of the ancillary effects on sectoral growth in areas considered to be central pillars to development on a global scale (such as national security, social capital, checks and balances, transparency, public sector performance, property rights, corporate governance). According to the World Economic Forum: Global Competitive Report 2018, countries like Brazil are also facing a crisis in institutional development. Brazil is now ranked 72 among 140 countries (including those in Sub-Saharan Africa) whose overall competitiveness falls narrowly above most countries, predominantly due to its failing institutional structures. More specific shortcomings include: 1) declining growth and innovation and 2) the lack of good-will earned interest between stakeholders. As shown in the Global Competitiveness Index 4.0 (see graph), Brazil was ranked 69th among 135 countries selected for an overall performance review in 2017.
Guyana is in the midst of an economic transformation. The quaint nation between Latin and South America known for its mineral wealth has become a major attraction for derivative industries hoping to capitalize on recent discoveries in oil and natural gas. Returns from Liza field and Payara in the Stabroek Block have given analysts reasons to believe that the country’s GDP (3.446 billion USD) will be more than double its current post by the year 2025. In our first round of interviews for the Institute of Caribbean Studies (ICS), there were high expectations for growth and some concern. The not so distant memories of the previous government’s turmoil and the country’s socio-economic and cultural challenges have overshadowed the potential for a new narrative—and in some cases caused spectators to question the pragmatism of internal planning for external change. There were at least (10) salient issues that garnered qualitative consensus:
Distinguished faculty and alumni
Parents, friends, well-wishers and graduates of the class of 2010,
I am truly humbled by the opportunity to come before you this afternoon. To deliver the commencement address at the University of Maryland, College-Park, School of Behavioral and Social Sciences (my undergraduate alma mater) is not an assignment that I take lightly. So in advance, I thank you for your indulgence."
principal focus for the rebuilding effort would be decentralization. What plans have
been put in effect to facilitate decentralized development in terms of infrastructure
and government services? What types of industries are most appropriate for the
different parts of the country that have the most capacity to attract investment and
job creation?
MODERATOR: Shawnta Walcott, Pollster
INTRODUCTION: Kenneth Merten, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti
US-BASED CHAMBER REPRESENTATIVE:
François Guillaume, Jr., Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce of Florida
HAITI-BASED CHAMBER REPRESENTATIVE:
Reginald Boulos, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti (Invited);
Malherbe Dorvil, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the North of Haiti
(Invited); Roland Zenny, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Jacmel
We believe Barack Obama‘s election symbolizes a step towards the realization of our dreams deferred. His power to unite across race, political ideology, gender, and class represents an alternative that each of us should consider when devising solutions to the troubled dynamics of race and inequality throughout the world. The 2009 5th Annual Black Policy Conference, ―Victory in Unity: Realizing the Dream Deferred,‖ reflected an extraordinary moment in our nation‘s political landscape and a critical point in the future of the conference as a vibrant and sustainable institution at the Kennedy School. The 2009 conference brought together over 200 students, policymakers, and professionals in law, business, health, media, international affairs and education.
It’s really no surprise that elected officials hold sharply divergent views. So do their constituents. That was the message from Shawnta Watson Walcott, director of communications for polling firm Zogby International, when she spoke at the combined 2004 CSG-WEST and CSG State Trends and Leadership Forum last September.
But does dissent have to mean disrespect? State officials and academics discussed that question during a forum on legislative civility convened by CSG-WEST’s Western Legislative Futures Forum. Alaska Rep. Lesil McGuire, chair of the committee, asked participants: Can legislative civility survive polarized voters and contentious politics?
Haiti is on the cusp of its own realization. As the 2015 election process tilts towards crisis, a movement led by a fledgling group of opposition leaders in parliament known as the G6 works to thwart-off a “presidential decree.” A consensus between parliament and the administration can certainly buoyant the notion that a free and fair election is possible. However, the question remains as to whether or not unity will emerge.
Our proposal offers a methodology for a baseline study of attitudes among opinion leaders to identify the most salient issues facing the voting electorate. Leaders from nine major sectors as well as members of the Haitian diaspora will be asked to discuss domestic policy and candidate profiles in the context of their work and in relation to the global risk factors listed in the 2014 Global Risk Assessment Report released at the World Economic Forum. The data will be used to calibrate responses in PHASE II and III—and to seek support for election projects like the construct of a domestic observation mission to work in alignment with the Council Electoral Provisoire (CEP).