Greetings, Members, I would like to extend a very gracious thank you to our resident veterans: Todd and Leslie. Please let me know if anyone else is a veteran so you receive the recognition you deserve today. On a related note, November 11th, of course, marks the end of World War I. This happens to be when Poland regained its independence after 123 years of being partitioned between Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Two wonderful things to commemorate and honour today! -Ryan

Good Morning, Everyone. Apologies for disappearing. I am in the Dallas Airport right now heading to Atlanta and then Florida. After the Doctoral residency, I went to the Ambassador's breakfast in Washington, DC. It was awesome. I was able to speak to several Ambassadors from Latin America. Monday, I will get back on track.

Greetings everyone, I will have to reschedule office hour for later tonight or tomorrow. I'm driving back home from Richmond, VA and it is taking a bit longer than expected. I can be on call later tonight and do a time tomorrow. Just let me know what works best.

Dear Members, As some of you know, I am in the process of having my dissertation published in book form. I thought I'd share the proof of the front and back covers. You will notice that the cover I chose is an autograph score to a piece by composer Felix Mendelssohn. I chose this since the structure of my dissertation was conceived musically. Instead of introduction, interim summary, and conclusion, I used præludium, intermezzo, and coda. Very exciting to see this come together! -R

Greetings once more, I am thinking about starting a YouTube channel for the Institute and would be glad to learn everyone's opinion on what type of content would be helpful and appealing to doctoral candidates. Please let me know your thoughts.