The Silfen Forum 2024 Participants

J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD

Interim President, University of Pennsylvania

J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph.D., was named Interim President of the University of Pennsylvania on Dec. 12, 2023. He had previously served as Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine since July 1, 2011.

As EVP and Dean, Dr. Jameson collaborated with health system leadership to spearhead the development and opening of the Penn Medicine Pavilion, a game-changing patient care facility that was the largest capital project in Penn’s history. Throughout 2023, Dr. Jameson led the development of “Serving a Changing World,” which outlines the strategic vision and goals for Penn Medicine for the next five years. At Penn Medicine, Dr. Jameson has also championed initiatives that promote excellence on all levels, including faculty recruitment, student success, scholarship and discovery, philanthropic giving, and a culture of inclusion and collaboration. He has led during a time of unprecedented scientific breakthroughs, FDA approved medications, and transformative platform technologies such as CAR T cell treatment and mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines.

Before joining Penn Medicine, Dr. Jameson served for four years as Dean of the Feinberg School of Medicine and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Northwestern University. He first joined Northwestern University Medical School in 1993, as Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Molecular Medicine. In 2000, he was named Irving S. Cutter Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Jameson received his medical degree with honors and a doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina in 1981. He completed clinical training in internal medicine and endocrinology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Before leaving for Northwestern University, he rose through the ranks at Harvard Medical School to become an associate professor of medicine and chief of the Thyroid Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.

An accomplished physician-scientist, Dr. Jameson has pioneered studies of the genetic basis of hormonal disorders, and he is the author of more than 350 scientific articles and chapters. He is an editor of “Harrison’s,” the most widely used textbook of Internal Medicine. His work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics, Science, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. He has served as president of The Endocrine Society and Association of American Physicians, and recently chaired the Board of Directors of the American Association of Medical Colleges. Dr. Jameson has received many distinguished awards, including the Van Meter Award from the American Thyroid Association, the Koch Award from The Endocrine Society, and the Sheen Award from the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Jameson is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

Salam Fayyad

Former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority

Salam Fayyad is an economist and former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. He is currently a Senior Fellow with the Middle East Initiative and a Visiting Senior Scholar and Daniella Lipper Coules '95 Distinguished Visitor in Foreign Affairs at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs.

With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 1987 to 2001, his tenure included serving as IMF resident representative in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from 1996 to 2001. He then served as manager of the Arab Bank in Palestine, and, in June 2002, he was named minister of finance of the Palestinian Authority. Until he resigned in December 2005, Dr. Fayyad served in that capacity on several cabinets, introducing in the process extensive financial reforms. In January 2006, he ran for elections on a slate of independents and was elected for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), where he served as chairman of the Finance Committee. In March 2007, Fayyad was appointed again as minister of finance in a national unity government, and in June 2007, he was appointed prime minister, a position he held until he stepped down in June 2013. In August 2013, Fayyad founded "Future for Palestine," a nonprofit development foundation. 

Currently, Dr. Fayyad is a Visiting Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a distinguished statesman with the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. Dr. Fayyad holds a BSc from the American University of Beirut, an MBA from St. Edward's University, and a PhD in economics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Itamar Rabinovich

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States

Itamar Rabinovich is Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University. He is Israel's former ambassador to the United States and former Chief Negotiator with Syria in the mid-1990s, and the former President of Tel Aviv University (1999-2007). He is President Emeritus and Counselor of the Israel Institute (Washington and Tel Aviv), and a Distinguished Fellow of the Brooking Institution's Foreign Policy Program.

Prof. Rabinovich has been a member of Tel Aviv University's faculty since 1971 and served as Ettinger Professor of the Contemporary History of the Middle East, Chairman of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Director of the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Dean of Humanities and Rector. He is the Vice Chairman of the INSS (Institute for National Security Studies), an external institute of TAU, and a senior research fellow at the Dayan Center for Middle-Eastern studies. He is co-editor of the Center's new review journal, Bustan.

Professor Rabinovich is the author of nine books on the Modern History and Politics of the Middle East and the co-author and co-editor of several other volumes and he is the author of numerous essays and papers. His most recent books are The View from Damascus (updated, paperback edition, London, September 2011) and The Lingering Conflict: Israel, The Arabs and The Middle East (Brookings, December 2011). In 2016 he published the biography of Yitzhak Rabin with Yale University Press, and Israel Facing a Changing Middle East (with Itay Brun) with Hoover Institution Press. The Rabin biography was translated into seven languages and is the winner of the 2017 Washington Institute’s Gold Medal. He has recently co-authored new book on the Syrian civil war to be published by Princeton University Press in 2020.

Over the years, Professor Rabinovich held several public positions in Israel and in other countries. He is currently Chairman of the Board of the Dan David Foundation, a member of the Advisory Council of APCO WORLDWIDE, a member of the International Advisory Board of the Brookings Institution in Washington and a member of the International Advisory Board of The American Interest.

Professor Rabinovich has held visiting appointments in several academic institutions, including the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Toronto. He was for several years the Andrew White Professor at Large at Cornell University, and has recently served as Visiting Professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and Distinguished Global Professor at NYU.

Professor Rabinovich is a member of the American Philosophical Society and a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been awarded the Honorary Grand Golden Cross of the Austrian Republic and has been made by the Government of the French Republic a Commandeur l'ordre des Palmes Académiques. In 2009 he was awarded the Korn-Gerstenman Prize for contribution to peace in the Middle East.

Michele Kelemen C'89

Diplomatic Correspondent, NPR

Michele Kelemen has been with NPR for two decades, starting as NPR's Moscow bureau chief and now covering the State Department and Washington's diplomatic corps. Her reports can be heard on all NPR News programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

As Diplomatic Correspondent, Kelemen has traveled with Secretaries of State from Colin Powell to Antony Blinken and everyone in between. The American Academy of Diplomacy called her a "voice of reason," honoring her with the 2023 Arthur Ross Media Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis on Foreign Affairs. She was also part of the NPR team that won the 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the war in Iraq.

As NPR's Moscow bureau chief, Kelemen chronicled the end of the Yeltsin era and Vladimir Putin's consolidation of power. She recounted the terrible toll of the latest war in Chechnya, while also reporting on a lighter side of Russia, with stories about modern day Russian literature and sports. Kelemen came to NPR in September 1998, after eight years working for the Voice of America. There, she learned the ropes as a news writer, newscaster and show host.

Michele earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Russian and East European Affairs and International Economics.