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 By Theo Spanos Dunfey We live in turbulent times. Extreme polarization, animosity across divides, and violence erupting in places we’ve grown too accustomed to seeing it and in places we never expected it. Exacerbated by a 24/7 media landscape that proves difficult to pull away from, we find ourselves irritated, agitated and feeling small and alone in the face of the enormity of the problems we face in these turbulent times. Surely there must be an escape! Rather than an escape, however, I would posit that what we need is to do something, as people at the recent Democratic National Convention have reminded us. Recalling their mothers’ admonitions to do something instead of complaining, do something instead of sitting on the couch waiting for someone else to fix things, and do something even if it’s hard, the speakers reminded me of one of the origin stories of Global Citizens Circle. As I wrote in my previous blog post, I was fortunate to become part of the Dunfey family, the Circle founders. While I never met Catherine Dunfey, the family matriarch, I’ve heard the stories of the example she set for her large and sometimes unwieldy group of a dozen offspring. Her youngest daughter, Eleanor Dunfey-Freiburger, wrote in her memoir “Counter Culture: Clams, Convents and a Circle of Global Citizens” – My mother’s example…showed us what “social justice” looks like. She would never have heard that term in those days. She lived it though…my mother walked the talk of social justice in her everyday life. Catherine’s example had a profound and lasting impact on her family, and it is reflected in the story of Global Citizens Circle. Fifty years ago, it was another turbulent time. In the wake of national trauma over the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, the end of the Vietnam War, the resignation of a disgraced president, and the upheaval in Boston over school desegregation and bussing, the pervasive feelings of helplessness and hopelessness spurred the Dunfey family to “do something!” As hoteliers, the family decided to use their experience in the hospitality industry to take action and bring people of different backgrounds, races and beliefs together, usually over a meal, to talk with one another in an open and respectful manner about the hard issues that everyone was grappling with in the early 1970s. A firm belief that diverse, civil conversations on critical issues of the day would help begin to break down barriers when coupled with a friendly, warm and welcoming environment – and that is how the Circle became the family’s act of doing something. And beyond opening up their hotels to welcome people into the conversation, they set an example of working behind the scenes for peace in Northern Ireland, South Africa and the Middle East among other conflict areas in the world. As Monica McWilliams, the only woman signatory to Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement, said to us, “They (the Dunfey family) were influencers, but influencers without ego, influencers who worked under the radar, influencers who were humble people…” In this, the 50th anniversary year of Global Citizens Circle, I value and hold dear the legacy that the organization has of bringing people together across differences, welcoming everyone to the conversation, and honoring everyone’s lived experience as we discuss the way towards lasting peace and justice. When we truly listen with open minds, and we learn to hold differing opinions with respect for the humanity of those who express them, I believe we can all lead the way to solving even the most intractable problems we face. Just do something! Theo Spanos Dunfey is president and executive director of Global Citizens Circle. She has over 30 years of global experience in non-profits, higher education, and international affairs. Dunfey is a graduate of the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, where she earned a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy, concentrating on American diplomatic history, international communication, and international development. It was during her studies at the Fletcher School that she first began volunteering with Global Citizens Circle’s Boston programs. She also earned a bachelor’s in international relations and French at Brown University. With a primary focus on global issues, Dunfey taught international development at the University of New England, led student groups on global citizenship service-learning trips abroad, directed the World Affairs Council of Maine, and produced numerous global editorial conferences for The WorldPaper before taking the helm at Global Citizens Circle. When we truly listen with open minds, and we learn to hold differing opinions with respect for the humanity of those who express them, I believe we can all lead the way to solving even the most intractable problems we face. Please note: Each week, we invite members of the greater Global Citizens Circle community to contribute to GCC Voices. The views and opinions expressed in each blog post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Global Citizens Circle.
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 Global Citizen Circle Board Chair Sean O'Kane is a retired executive with 30+ years of experience in customer relations, operations, business development, alliance building, thought leadership, strategic management, and growth in both the private and public sectors, nationally and globally. He has held successful careers in hospitality, government, and technology. Beyond GCC, Sean serves – and has served – on several boards, including NH Public Broadcasting System, Franklin Pierce University (2013-2023), Bellwether Community Credit Union, Sail Portsmouth/Sea Challenge, and Granite United Way, Community Impact Committee. Tell us a bit about your professional background and how it led you to where you are today. I enjoyed a 24-year career in the hospitality industry. Although I never worked for Dunfey International Hotels, I first met Jack (Dunfey) in 1963 when I was 8 years old. It was the influence of the Dunfeys and my deep admiration for the family that led to my own hotel career. In my career, I was recognized as the General Manager of the Year in New Hampshire, General Manager of the Year in the U.S by the American Hotel and Lodging Association, and Travel Person of the Year in New Hampshire. I also served as the chair of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, chair of the NH Lodging and Restaurant Association and as vice chair of the NH Political Library. In 2004, I was appointed, by then-Governor Benson, as Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development. In that time, I led trade missions to 11 countries, promoting New Hampshire-based businesses to overseas opportunities and was awarded the Medal of Peace and Commerce by the U.S. Department of Commerce. In my role, I oversaw the Divisions of Economic Development, Travel and Tourism Development, State Parks and Land and Forests, such a diverse but fascinating mix of competing interests that naturally fostered wide-ranging discussions about how to best achieve smart and sustainable growth in New Hampshire. After my term, I joined the French-based energy efficiency multinational corporation, Schneider Electric. I worked with 12 dedicated countries in promoting energy-efficiency technologies for the 4 and 5-star global hotel market and served on the Advisory Board for the Center of Hospitality Research at Cornell University. I am now retired, serving on several boards, most notably with Global Citizens Circle. When did you first learn about Global Citizens Circle, and how has your engagement grown with GCC over the years? I was first introduced to GCC in 1998, after returning to New Hampshire to run a convention hotel in Manchester. I attended a few Circles at the Parker House and was completely taken in by the level and content of the dialogue they fostered. I took notice of the number of New Hampshire people who attended these Circles and offered to host a couple of Circles at the hotel in Manchester to make it more accessible for these New Hampshire residents. Some years later, I met with Eleanor Dunfey-Freiburger and learned of the efforts to reconstitute GCC in collaboration with Southern New Hampshire University. I subsequently joined as an advisor and then joined the board just a few years ago. What have been some of the most meaningful experiences you've had through GCC? It is impossible not to be in awe of the incredibly successful outreach and influence the Dunfey family has had in global conflicts and social issues. Their partners and advisors consisted of global leaders, social activists, Nobel Prize recipients, elders, and emerging leaders, all focused on open discussion and the sharing of experiences and knowledge to encourage proactive efforts to resolving conflict, to finding peace and to promoting diversity, equality and inclusion. In a world so fragmented by violence and politics, these accomplishments resonated strongly with me. What do you tell others about the benefits of supporting and participating in GCC events and activities? We have made recent efforts to re-engage with business leaders, returning to our founding days, to focus on addressing social, environmental, and conflict issues and challenges that we face today. These leaders are in the position to address issues facing us in our respective communities. While some in the political theatre have attempted to make diversity, equity and inclusion a divisive concept, the reality is businesses face major challenges that a diverse employment base brings as well as in the communities in which they operate. An openness to understanding and working with a diverse employment base and community is critical for success today. And, the fact of the matter is, a diverse community offers new ideas, insight, energy, and engagement that keeps us from becoming stagnant. This is the very definition of the successes that have brought us to where we are today. As Board Chair, what are your goals for GCC? As Board Chair, and in our current fiscal year, my objectives are to provide more board support to the remarkable work GCC Executive Director and President Theo Spanos Dunfey and Assistant Director Phoebe de Larrabeiti accomplish, sharply enhance our fundraising efforts, grow our board membership with an emphasis on targeting key business leaders, and to support our outreach in expanding our Emerging Leaders program and Global Partners. It is impossible not to be in awe of the incredibly successful outreach and influence the Dunfey family has had in global conflicts and social issues.  By Nadine Hack I’ve been involved with Global Citizens Circle (GCC) for 40 of its 50 years, since 1984 when I met my husband Jerry Dunfey, its founding president. I love its inclusive, egalitarian mission to connect people of diverse sectors, ages, nationalities, ethnicities, genders, and socioeconomic status. It champions intergenerational dialogue to find sustainable solutions for global problems that require multiple perspectives. GCC teaches us: We may not agree on every issue but we can respect and learn from each other. I cherish being in its worldwide community engaging in discussions, then joining in actions to promote social justice, equality and peace. I’ve helped organize and participated in many Circles over four decades. GCC has a credo, “Start young and stay at it.” When GCC connects us with young activists, it encourages us to remain connected to them for decades. It’s done this throughout the U.S., Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, South Africa, and wherever there are problems that need broad support for a sustained time.  At GCC's 2019 intergenerational Circle, "Building Movements for Change: Stories of Challenge and Success," with facilitator Jada Keye Hebra, SVP & Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Southern New Hampshire University; Lauren Hogg, co-founder, March for Our Lives; Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers; and Ramla Sahid, founder, Partnership for Advancement of New Americans  At a 1985 Boston Circle:: Thabo Mbeki, later to be president South Africa; Zodwa Sisulu; Oliver Tambo, ANC president; Themba Vilakazi, FREESA co-founder; Prexy Nesbitt, global anti-apartheid activist; Zwelakhe Sisulu, journalist, editor, New Nation newspaper founder In 1985, a Circle in Boston featured Oliver Tambo, the president of the African National Congress (ANC). Other exiled South Africans attended, including Zwelakhe Sisulu, a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard; Johnny Makatini, head of the ANC’s international arm; and Thabo Mbeki, a member of its executive committee. It was the first time many of them had seen each other since they’d gone into exile. So, not only was GCC introducing them to Americans who wanted to know more about the anti-apartheid movement but also reconnecting them to one another.  At 1990 Circle, GCC founding President Jerry Dunfey and Senior Advisor Nadine Hack present the Global Citizens Circle award to Nelson Mandela. Many Circles focused on how to end apartheid and, after it, how to support negotiations leading to South Africa’s free and fair elections. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Jerry and I presented the Global Citizens Award to him in Washington DC.  In 1986, GCC held a Circle in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the U.S. congressional vote on sanctions featuring social justice advocate and world-renowned performer Harry Belafonte and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate. Many senior legislative aides to members of the US Senate and House of Representatives said the decision to vote for sanctions was largely made based on Archbishop Tutu’s stirring words.  In 1998, GCC brought a delegation of 68 democracy activists from nine countries to South Africa for visits to and discussions with local activists including a group convened in Alexandria Township by Linda Twala, affectionately called ‘the father of the nation’ in Alex Town. Along the sagging banks at the outskirts of the shantytown, he had locals hold hands with us in a circle. There wasn’t a dry eye as he spoke about the importance of our international solidarity with them to end poverty and create opportunity for everyone in his nation.  In that same trip, Archbishop Desmond Tutu welcomed us to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Justices Albie Sachs and Richard Goldstone took us around the new Constitutional Court; Walter and Albertina Sisulu hosted us at her Creche after we attended a service at Ipeleng church in Soweto; Ahmed Kathrada showed us around the Robben Island prison where he and Mandela had been cell mates and Sisulu, who accompanied us on the boat ride there; we met with members of the new multi-racial Parliament and even with President Mandela. In 1999, at a Circle in Atlanta, we presented the Global Citizens Award to Coretta Scott King and to John Hume, a leading peacemaker in Northern Ireland, another region we’d focused on. We’d brought GCC delegations to Belfast and hosted numerous Circles on ‘The Troubles’ there and in the U.S. from the 1970s through the 2000s.  In 1999, Maria Freiburger, Jerry Dunfey, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Ambassador Andrew Young presented the Global Citizens Award to Coretta Scott King and to John Hume. Since COVID, online Circles have had an even greater global reach since anyone can join from wherever they are on the planet. Some of GCC’s recent Circles include:
In these and other Circles, discussion leaders conveyed how much they valued Global Citizens Circle, and how touched they were that we listened to their stories and pledged ongoing support of their causes. In our deeply divided world, Global Citizens Circle is needed now more than ever! Nadine Hack is the CEO of beCause Global Consulting, helping individuals and organizations connect to core purpose – creating synergy within entities, improving relations among internal and external stakeholders and enabling challenges to be overcome and goals become achieved – for nearly 40 years. She has worked with leaders globally in business, NGOs, academia and government, including Nelson Mandela. Nadine is a senior advisor to Global Citizens Circle, the first female Executive-in-Residence at IMD Business School, a Forbes Councils author, and a TEDx speaker, whose talk, “Adversaries to Allies,” is viewed worldwide. She has garnered many awards throughout her career, including Responsible CEO of Year Shortlist, Top Corporate Social Responsibility Leader, Top Ethical Business Influencer, Enterprising Woman of the Year, Catalyst for Change, an Inspiration Life Achievement presented at Säid Business School Oxford. She is currently writing a book, “The Power of Connectedness,” with a foreword by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  Theo Spanos Dunfey, center left, with members of the Sisulu and Dunfey families in 1998 in South Africa, including (l to r) Linda Sisulu, South African activisits Albertina and Walter Sisulu, and Sheila Sisulu.  Global Citizens Circle President and Executive Director with GCC then Board Chair Tito Jackson By Theo Spanos Dunfey Forty years ago, a year after I graduated from college, I met the Dunfeys, a remarkable family that I came to know and love for their generosity, their hospitality, their arms wide open hugs, and their commitment to family in the very broadest sense of the word. While I did join the immediate family by marrying the son of one of the founders, I also joined the Global Citizens Circle (GCC) family, which was as nurturing, as boisterous and as full of opinions as its large Irish-American family founders. Having grown up in New Hampshire in a family with Greek immigrant origins, I was drawn to learning about the world, partly because of my Greek heritage, but also because of the insular environment of the small mill-town that limited my exposure to people different than myself. Studying global affairs was my answer to learning about the world, but becoming a part of the GCC family was the entry to a deeper and more profound understanding of the people of the world and the real challenges propelling them to take action for positive change. The Circle has always had as its mission to bring together diverse, intergenerational, and cross-sectoral groups to discuss the issues of the day openly and honestly with an ultimate goal of finding the common ground that is necessary for making change. The Circle’s past 50 years have been a testament to the kinds of actions for change Circle discussion leaders implored us to take. Peace in Northern Ireland, democracy in South Africa, understanding in the Middle East, and racial justice in the U.S. are some of the areas that GCC brought to the attention of concerned citizens and then connected them to others who could help lead movements for change. Today, there are no fewer problems to address, and, in fact, we still grapple with many of those that served as a catalyst for the founding of the Circle. War still abounds, racial tensions continue to erupt, democracy still demands our attention and listening across differences has become far more challenging. Add to that the growing mental health crisis affecting young people around the globe, a climate on the brink of irreparably changing for the worse, and the unknown impacts of artificial intelligence on every facet of our lives – and we see the absolute need for continued dialogue that brings people together, that challenges all of us to listen to diverse points of view, and that also nurtures a new generation of changemakers. Our new blog – GCC Voices – is another means for opening up conversation and learning from one another. We’ll have regular blog posts from around the world, coming from those who are a part of the GCC family. Our hope is that in sharing stories from thinkers and doers globally, we will better recognize our shared humanity and our need to work together. Join me in celebrating the stories of impact that will populate this new GCC blog. Be sure to check back each Monday, as we share voices from throughout our global community. Theo Spanos Dunfey is president and executive director of Global Citizens Circle. She has over 30 years of global experience in non-profits, higher education, and international affairs. Dunfey is a graduate of the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, where she earned a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy, concentrating on American diplomatic history, international communication, and international development. It was during her studies at the Fletcher School that she first began volunteering with Global Citizens Circle’s Boston programs. She also earned a bachelor’s in international relations and French at Brown University. With a primary focus on global issues, Dunfey taught international development at the University of New England, led student groups on global citizenship service-learning trips abroad, directed the World Affairs Council of Maine, and produced numerous global editorial conferences for The WorldPaper before taking the helm at Global Citizens Circle. |
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