The 2006 MID Intercultural Dialogue Award to Attorney Sheela Murthy

Attorney Sheela Murthy is the Founder, President, and Managing Attorney of the Murthy Law Firm , located in Baltimore County , Maryland . Her firm of approximately 50 professionals concentrates in the area of U.S. Immigration Law. Having completed her Masters Degree in Law (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School in Cambridge , Massachusetts , USA , Ms. Murthy has been admitted to practice as an attorney in New York , Maryland , and the US Supreme Court. Attorney Murthy is a member of several legal and professional organizations. She is active in the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). She has been on the Executive Committee of the Washington D.C. Chapter of AILA. Prior to this, she was chair of the Liaison Committee to the Department of Labor for Maryland , Virginia , and Washington D.C . for the AILA D.C. Chapter. She continues to be a leader in the organization.

Attorney Murthy is regularly invited to present papers and speak on various complex immigration law issues before AILA and other national and international organizations, e.g. the International Bar Association in London and the Center for International Legal Studies in Salzburg. She is on the Board of Trustees co-chairs the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF)'s Annual Immigrant Achievement Awards event, which selects and recognizes outstanding immigrants who have made notable contributions to American life.

Murthy's passion for giving back to community and serving fellow humans has not been any less than her dedication to solving their immigration matters. She established the Murthy Foundation to support the community through giving. Her dedication to serve humanity has been recognized widely. She had served on the Board of Governors of the Harvard Club of Maryland and is serving on the Board of Directors of several other professional and civic organizations, including as a Board of Trustee of the American Immigration Law Foundation and as co-Chair of the Women's Leadership Council of the United Way .

(Ref: http://www.murthy.com/attorney.html)

The 2006 MID Diversity Award to the UMD Provost Dr. William W. Destler

Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost William W. Destler previously served the University as Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School , as Dean of Engineering, and as Chair of Electrical Engineering. He received his B.S. degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1968 and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1972. His research interests have been primarily in the areas of high power microwave sources and particle beam technology, and he is the author or co-author of over 200 research papers on these and related topics. Dr. Destler is the recipient of numerous awards for teaching excellence, including the 1989 A.T.&T. Award for Excellence in Engineering Education for the Mid-Atlantic States . In 1992 he was named a University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher . He has pioneered the offering of technological literacy programs to corporate audiences, and is presently involved in several innovative cross-disciplinary educational programs. Dr. Destler is a Fellow of both the IEEE and the American Physical Society. Provost Destler's term in the office has been marked his tremendous efforts to promote diversity on the UMD campus and his dedication to attend every cultural events organized by the groups representing the wide diversity on the campus.

(Ref: http://www.provost.umd.edu/Bio/DestlerBio.html)

The 2006 MID Peace Award to Dr. Peter K. Bechtold

Dr. Peter K. Bechtold has been at the Foreign Service Institute since 1976, and served as Chair of Near East and North African Area Studies at the US State Department for 29 years. Prior to that, he was a Middle East Specialist in the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. Dr. Bechtold is currently Visiting Professor at the College of William and Mary.

From 1968 until 1975, Dr. Bechtold was a faculty member in the Government and Politics Department of the University of Maryland at College Park , and from 1967 until 1968, was a faculty member in the Political Science Department at the University of Oregon . He was a Scholar-Diplomat Intern at the U.S. Department of State in 1973 and 1975, and has been a Professorial Lecturer at Georgetown University , George Washington University , and the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the Johns Hopkins University . He was a senior Fulbright-Hayes Research Professor in Egypt in 1971 and 1972.

Dr. Bechtold is the author of Politics in the Sudan : Parliamentary and Military Rule in an Emerging African Nation. He has written numerous articles and reviews in such periodicals as the Middle East Journal , American-Arab Affairs , Africa Today , MESA Bulletin , and two encyclopedias.

Dr. Bechtold earned a B.A. at Portland State and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics and Near East Studies at Princeton University . He has made professional visits to all 25 countries in the Near East, North Africa, and Central Asia , and has done field research in the region for more than three years.

The 2006 MID Education Dialogue Award to Dr. Louis J. Cantori

Dr. Louis J. Cantori is Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland , Baltimore County . He did his graduate work in Political Science and on the Middle East at the University of Chicago . He studied Islamic philosophy in the Faculty of Theology, al-Azhar University , Cairo , Egypt . He was a Fulbright student in Egypt in 1963-65 and subsequently was visiting professor at the American University in Cairo in 1974-76. In 1969-70 he did fieldwork in Morocco and returned as a Fulbright researcher in 1994-95. He just returned from being Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer there. Altogether, he has lived about seven years in the Middle East and has done research, visited or done consulting activities in Egypt, Morocco, Israel, the Occupied Territories, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan and Iraq (where in 1991 he was present up to five days before the invasion of Kuwait).

As a specialist on development, he has been a consultant for USAID and numerous private companies in the area of water and waste water, roads, government organization etc. He is Distinguished Visiting Lecturer on the Middle East at the State Department and has briefed Generals Schwartzkopf and Hoare (Cent Com) as well as speaking to Special Operations at Hurlburt Field, 5 th Special Forces and the JFK Special Warfare School. He has been Distinguished Visiting Professor, U.S.M.A., West Point and Olin Distinguished Professor of National Security Studies, U.S. Air Force Academy. He has also been the Major General Matthew C. Horner Chair of Military Theory, U.S. Marine Corps University. He has a scholarly interest in professional military education.

Dr. Cantori is also a founder of The Circle of Tradition and Progress (Halaqa al Asala wa al Taqaddum) (London and Washington) which is a group of prominent Western and Muslim intellectuals who share a critical view of modernity, and a founding member of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, and The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. He is also a founding member of the Conference Group on the Middle East , an affiliated group of the American Political Science Association.

The 2006 MID Interfaith Dialogue Award to Reverend Daniel R. Hamlin

The Reverend Daniel R. Hamlin was born in 1948 in Canandaigua , N.Y. He graduated from The Choate School, Wallingford , CT and The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill , NC (B.A.). Mr. Hamlin earned a Master of Divinity, Magna Cum Laude, in 1977 from Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lancaster , PA. He is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ.

Mr. Hamlin served on the staff of a church, as a consultant to two hundred congregations in the mid-Atlantic region, and as a mentor to Seminary students before coming to Greenbelt in 1984 as the pastor of Greenbelt Community Church , UCC. For the last twenty two years he has been an active member of the Greenbelt Interfaith Leadership Association (GILA) which includes representation from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Unitarian and Baha'i faith communities. GILA provides regular opportunities for dialogue, an interfaith Thanksgiving Service and an interfaith high school Baccalaureate Service. Through GILA Mr. Hamlin organized a city wide protest against the Ku Klux Klan and an interfaith candlelight vigil following the attacks of September 11 th . GILA continues to observe that date with interfaith community service projects.

In addition to his work with the church and GILA Mr. Hamlin is actively involved in strengthening public education, providing services to the homeless, supporting sustainable agricultural development projects throughout the world, assisting in the wake of such disasters as the Indonesian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina and other ministries to the poor and neglected.

Mr. Hamlin is the father of two adult sons and has two grandchildren.