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Newsletter:  May 2003/ Issue 4
UW Humphrey Fellow from China Interns at PNNL Seattle Office 

Jia Feng, Deputy Director General of the Center for Environmental Education and Communications [CEEC], of China’s State Environmental Protection Administration [SEPA], is getting first hand experience in public participation research with staff at the PNNL Seattle Office. Jia is a Humphrey Fellow at the University of Washington (UW) this academic year. His area of interest is public participation in environmental protection.

Jia was a student in a course PNNL staff member, Ann Lesperance, teaches at the UW on international management of the Washington State Puget Sound/British Columbia Georgia Basin ecosystem. After the course was completed, Jia and Lesperance discussed Jia’s professional interest in public participation and the experience PNNL has in this area, and Jia expressed a strong interest in doing his Humphrey Fellows academic internship at PNNL with staff involved in the practical realities of public participation and policy.

Kevin Whattam, coordinator of regional nuclear cooperation at PNNL stated, “Linking PNNL with the University of Washington and being able to develop relationships with the next generation of decision makers in selected countries is critical for the success of our programs.”

Jia is working with Lesperance and Kristi Branch, who are both in PNNL’s Global Security and Technology Policy (GSTP) group and have been conducting a comparison of public participation frameworks in China, the United States and the European Union. Jia will present the GSTP group’s findings at an international conference he is organizing later this year in China.

Prior to becoming CEEC Deputy Director, Jia worked in Government Reform and Education at SEPA. He holds a Bachelor of Law and Masters Degree on Environmental Law from Beijing University. In addition, Jia was the director of “Window on American Environment a 22 Episode Documentary Series,” which aired on China Central Television (CCTV) in December 2002.

The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program is administered at the UW School of Public Affairs with its primary support coming from the US Department of State. The Humphrey Program brings accomplished mid-career professionals from designated countries of Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and Eurasia to the United States for one year of non-degree graduate study and practical, work-related experience. Fellowships are awarded in a wide variety of fields including natural resources and environmental management; public policy analysis; economic development; business; public health; technology policy; urban/regional planning; and democratic development. The program is intended to help strengthen the global network of knowledge and considered by many to be essential to the full development of human potential.