Mr. Terrien leads all aspects of programming and strategy for the Columbus Council on World Affairs including revenue generation, community partnerships, staffing, and strategic planning. To widespread acclaim and under Terrien’s leadership, the Council pioneered the nation’s first Global Report, a research publication cataloguing the Central Ohio region’s global assets; the Global Scholars Diploma, a high school credential for global competence; and the Global Fluency Institute, a social enterprise that trains professionals in cross cultural communication. He is responsible for securing high profile national advisors and funders such as Harvard, Asia Society, ASCD, Procter and Gamble, Gallup, Cardinal Health and Honda. Mr. Terrien often speaks for organizations such as Harvard University’s “Think Tank on Global Education” and Ohio State University Fisher College of Business on topics ranging from social enterprise to globalization to educational access and equity.
With a degree in International Politics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Mr. Terrien worked in Washington D.C. for the U.S. Agency for International Development facilitating U.S. environmental exports to Asia. During his three years at USAID, Patrick traveled to Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. Prior to becoming President & CEO, Mr. Terrien was the Director for Corporate Relations at COSI Columbus where we directed the science museum’s corporate fundraising program. Terrien also led from start-up to execution a global sustainability initiative for Right Management, an international company with 300 locations worldwide.
Mr. Terrien recently served on the Ohio Department of Education’s International Education Advisory Committee and as guest advisor to EF Education First’s Global Student Leader Summits in Costa Rica and Davos, Switzerland. He currently serves on the national board of the World Affairs Councils of America, chair for its Global Education Task Force, and was recently selected for a leadership delegation to China. Though rusty, Mr. Terrien is conversational in Bahasa Indonesian and French, and has studied Spanish and American Sign Language. He is a 2013 recipient of Columbus Business First’s Forty Under 40 Award.
Ilhan Dahir was a Research Associate with the Protecting Civilians and Human Security Program. Her current work focuses on issues relating to human rights, women, peace and security, UN peace operations, and migration. Ilhan previously worked at the African Union (AU) Mission to the United Nations as a consultant researcher where she focused on issues concerning AU-UN partnership, peace and security, climate security, and conflict related displacement. Ilhan also worked at the International Peace Institute’s (IPI) as a researcher on the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations team.
Ilhan holds two Masters from the University of Oxford where she studied Global Governance and Diplomacy and Refugee and Forced Migration Studies as a Rhodes Scholar.
Matthew Omolesky is a human rights lawyer and a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. After pursuing his studies at Kenyon College, University College London, the Whitehead School of Diplomacy, and The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, he served as a researcher with the Laboratoire Européen d’Anticipation Politique (Paris), and as a researcher-in-residence at the Inštitut za Civilizacijo in Kulturo (Ljubljana). His writings on human rights and cultural heritage preservation have appeared in publications including The American Spectator, Quadrant, Lehrhaus, Europe2020, the Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy, the European Journal of Archaeology, Democratiya, and The New Times (Kigali), as well as in the 2023 German language anthology Alles ist teurer als ukrainisches Leben: Texte über Westsplaining und den Krieg, edited by Aleksandra Konarzewska, Schamma Schahadat, and Nina Weller and published by the Berlin-based edition.fotoTAPETA.
