On Tuesday, I spoke with ACURA board member, filmmaker and citizen diplomat Cynthia Lazaroff. For decades Cynthia has been among our most energetic and innovative citizen diplomats – working on Track II diplomacy and citizen exchange initiatives since the 1980’s.
In 1983, at the height of Cold War tensions, Cynthia co-founded and served as Executive Director of the US-USSR Youth Exchange Program where she pioneered exchanges in the fields of art, literature, theater, education, film, sports, among many other areas.
More recently, she founded NuclearWakeUpCall.Earth. She is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and author of Dawn of a New Armageddon, a personal account of the Hawaii missile scare that was published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Hiroshima Day 2018.
Before we began, Cynthia and I paid tribute to the late William vanden Heuvel who for years served as president of the Committee. Ambassador vanden Heuvel was a great gentleman and left a big imprint on his country through his work on civil rights and international diplomacy. He will be sorely missed by his colleagues on the Committee. – JWC