by contributor Donna Shor
Photo credit: Courtesy of Haddad Media
In the handsome Gallatin Room of the Jefferson Hotel, three remarkable women took the podium at the book signing of “I Believe in Zero,” Caryl Stern’s volume from St. Martin’s Press that recounts her often harrowing adventures traveling as President of UNICEF, and what she found.
Two of the three women who hosted the event were present, Ellen Tauscher and Melanne Verveer. The third host, the noted philanthropist, real estate executive and owner of the hotel, Connie Milstein, could not be there because of an out-of-town trip.
Ellen Tauscher
Ellen Tauscher’s career started early. After college she worked as an investment banker and at age 25 she took a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, and later was named an officer of the American Stock Exchange. She won election and served as a Democratic congresswoman from California’s 10th district until she resigned on being appointed Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs. She is now State’s Special Envoy for Strategic Stability and Defense, and Vice-chairman of the Atlantic Council’s Center on International Security.
Melanne Verveer
Hillary Rodham Clinton has praised Melanne Verveer, who was her former chief of staff during the Clinton White House days, for the tireless persistence she brings to whatever needs be done, both there and in her subsequent careers. These have included being a founder and COB of Vital Voices, an international non-governmental organization supporting women’s global leadership; and serving under the Obama administration as the first US Ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s issues.
Appointed by President Obama, Verveer is now executive director of the Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security, working, as it happens, at her former alma mater and at the Institute founded by Hillary Rodham Clinton, her former boss.
Caryl Stern, MC Tammy Haddad and Ellen Tauscher
Star of the evening was the author Caryl Stern, a warm and enthusiastic woman who seemed to be on happy-huggy terms with most of the 80 guests, and either to have shared a play pen or worked with them in some country or cause.
She is the president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, but her book is not an official publication; it is based on her memory and her perceptions. She has arranged that 100% of the royalties she would receive go to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, “to benefit vulnerable children around the world.”
ABC’s Polson Kanneth with Caryl Stein
The actress Tea Leoni tells in the book’s foreword that Caryl came to UNICEF for another job, but that in just six months she became the organization’s president. Tea, now a “UNICEF Ambassador,” is the granddaughter of the group’s iconic co-founder, Helenka Pantaleoni, and daughter of Anthony Pantaleoni, of the board of directors, making her a third-generation UNICEF supporter.
Nothing in Caryl’s comfortable upbringing in New York’s Westchester County prepared her for what she would witness in the underdeveloped countries: in Mozambique a new mother with her child, the only baby of three that lived. When her labor began, she walked four hours under a broiling sun to reach the nearest UNICEF clinic. She was desperate to get the medicines that would keep her healthy enough to care for her baby, despite being a victim of the HIV/AIDS epidemic sweeping the African continent.
Ellen Tauscher and Gordon Peterson
Or witnessing Darfur, where the violence had affected four million people, half of them children, or seeing the hungry and sick children of Haiti, suffering amidst the earthquake’s wreckage, and― as she saw everywhere― lacking clean water.
Or meeting the mother who was overjoyed that she had been able to get a preventative tetanus shot; her first baby had died when a few days old, from tetanus. Or the little ones laboring to make plastic bags in Bangladesh with scant chance to play because their tiny earnings counted toward the family’s survival.
Guests listening to her account included longtime television personality Gordon Peterson and wife Anne, Heather Podesta, Porter Novelli’s Kiki McLean, Polson Kanneth of ABC World News, Martin Dickinson of the Environmental Law Institute, John Coale, the lawyer who successfully sought justice for victims of the Bhopal gas leak disaster,( and who is the husband of Greta Van Susteren); Stacy Burdette of the Anti-Defamation League and Jess Hordes, its former president; and Eric Porterfield of the United Nations Foundation.
Judy Kurtz, Nikki Schwab and Caryl Stern
Also there was Neiman Marcus’ Martha Slagle, Nikki Schwab of USNews’ Washington Whispers; Caryl’s nephew Scott Stern, Robyn and Jeremy Bash, the managing director of Beacon Global Strategies, formerly chief of staff to both the Secretary of Defense and the CIA; Elisa Joseph Anders, vice-chair DC Advisory Council, Max Duckworth and Judy Kurtz, society editor of the Hill’s blog, In The Know.
Her book tells with empathy and a strong sense of humor―usually at her own shortcomings―much of what she learned observing and interacting with children in forty countries as they struggle with hunger, poverty and disease.
The title “I Believe in Zero: Learning from the World’s Children.” underscores the needs and what Caryl Stern has dedicated herself to help bring about: Zero Hunger, Zero Poverty and Zero Disease for children that could be the hope of the future.
