Board of Trustees
LEADERSHIP
The Remembrance Society is fortunate to have a leadership with diverse experience from nonprofit work to corporate business to education. They are united in their commitment to exposing, documenting, and advancing the truth about totalitarianism.
The Hon. Don Ritter, Sc.D.
Founding Chairman and Trustee
The Honorable Don Ritter is chairman and trustee of TRS and a former 14-year member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing Pennsylvania. He served on the Energy and Commerce and Science and Technology Committees, as ranking member on the Congressional Helsinki Commission, as the founding co-chair of the Baltic States-Ukraine Caucus, and as the founding co-chairman of the Congressional Task on Afghanistan.
Prior to serving in Congress, Don was a member of the faculty and administration of Lehigh University and a National Academy of Science Exchange Fellow in the U.S.S.R. After Congress, he led the National Environmental Policy Institute. Don also founded and chaired the Afghanistan Foundation in the mid-1990s and after September 11, 2001, was a founding member of the Afghan American Chamber of Commerce which became active in Afghanistan. He was an architect of the national chamber of commerce in Afghanistan where, for twenty years and some fifty visits to the country and the region, engaged in both business and policy-making. Don is trustee emeritus of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and trustee and president and C.E.O. emeritus of the Afghan American Chamber of Commerce. His current publications concern Post-Afghanistan withdrawal and the geopolitical implications of energy policies. He holds a master’s and doctorate from MIT and a bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University.
Mr. David Satter
Founding Vice Chairman, Trustee, and Director of Education Programs
David Satter is TRS vice chairman, trustee, and director of education programs, a journalist, historian, the author of six books on Russia and the Soviet Union, and a documentary film director. A former Moscow correspondent of the Financial Times of London (1976-82), he has followed Russian events for almost five decades. In September 2013, he was accredited as a Radio Liberty correspondent in Moscow. Three months later, he was expelled from Russia becoming the first U.S. correspondent to be barred from Russia since the Cold War.
David has been affiliated with the Hudson Institute and Johns Hopkins University. His most recent book, Never Speak to Strangers and Other Writing from Russia and the Soviet Union, was published in 2020 with a second volume released in March, 2024. A documentary film “Age of Delirium,” based off of his 1996 book Age of Delirium: the Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union, won the 2013 Van Gogh Grand Jury Prize at the Amsterdam Film Festival. His books have been translated into eight languages. David also writes frequently on Russia for the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and National Review, among other publications. He is regularly interviewed in both Russian and English by Radio Liberty, the Voice of America and the BBC, and other assorted international podcasts.
Ms. Kristina Olney Mallek
Founding Executive Director and Trustee
Kristina Olney Mallek is executive director and trustee of TRS. She previously served for six years as the director of Government Relations for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
In this role, she led the establishment of the bi-partisan Congressional Caucus for the Victims of Communism and established relationships with and secured dozens of Members of Congress, policymakers, Embassies, Ambassadors, and dignitaries to participate in events commemorating the victims of communism.
Kristina also led the organization’s campaign to establish November 7 as the U.S. National Day for the Victims of Communism, including letters and statements signed by influential allies, and arranging a meeting in the Oval Office with witnesses of communism.
After securing the first-ever Presidential Proclamation designating November 7 as the National Day for the Victims of Communism in 2017, she advocated for the same designation of November 7 by state governments across the country, which led to the introduction or enactment of such legislation by 13 states, in addition to federal legislation that was introduced by the VOC Caucus. She also led with allies in Florida the first legislative initiative in the country requiring high schools to teach the history of communism, which was signed by the Florida Governor in 2021.
Previously, she helped found and directed government relations and strategic communications for In Defense of Christians, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of ancient religious communities in the Middle East. In this role, she led the advocacy campaign calling for the United States to designate the ISIS crimes against Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria as genocide, including organizing a grassroots initiative that involved coordinating with local chapters of citizen supporters and church leaders hundreds of local and federal meetings with Congressional representatives. This campaign resulted in the U.S. Congress passing a resolution determining and subsequently the White House declaring the ISIS genocide in 2016.
Kristina also served for two years on Capitol Hill at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and as a Fellow on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ). She is an alumna of the National Endowment for Democracy's Penn Kemble Forum Fellowship, The Heritage Foundation’s Marshall Fellows Program, the Catholic Information Center's Leonine Forum, and of the John Jay Institute for Faith, Society, and Law Fellowship. She completed her B.A. in international relations at the Australian National University and her M.A. in international economic relations at American University. Her articles have appeared in publications including The Hill, First Things, National Review, and The Federalist.
Mr. Maximo Alvarez
Founding Trustee
Maximo Alvarez is a TRS trustee and president of Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, Inc. one of the largest gasoline distributors in Florida. Born in Havana, Cuba, Alvarez came to the United States at thirteen as part of Operation Pedro Pan. Alvarez attended LaSalle High School and then attended Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina before earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Florida State University.
Soon after graduation, Maximo began his career in the oil industry with Cities Services Oil Company (CITGO Petroleum) where he worked from 1971-1973. In 1973 Maximo switched to Mobil Oil Corporation working as a marketing representative in Tampa, Florida. In 1976, Maximo left the corporate life and decided on his first business venture as an independent entrepreneur opening Sunshine Citrus Corp. Sunshine Citrus enjoyed a successful eleven year run as a citrus gift packing and shipping enterprise. In 1987, when the expansion of I-595 caused Maximo to re-locate his business, he had the opportunity to purchase four underperforming gas stations from Southland Corp, (7-Eleven). These four gas stations were the cornerstone of Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, Inc. From barely two hundred thousand gallons per month, Sunshine Gasoline grew to over half a billion gallons sold per year. As of today, Sunshine operates over 300 locations and supplies another 250 branded retail facilities (Chevron, BP, Shell, Citgo, Marathon, and Exxon/Mobil). Sunshine Gasoline is one of the largest independent branded suppliers for all of their represented brands in the South Eastern United States. Sunshine Gasoline Distributors is currently #20 in CSP (Convenience Store and Fuel News) list of top 202 convenience stores.
Maximo has been extremely involved in the Florida Petroleum Marketers Association and was elected chairman of the board in 2000 and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2005. He has worked closely with the Petroleum Council as a tireless advocate for the industry and currently serves on the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Florida Consumer Council. He has also received awards for his work in Hope for Vision and the Transplant Foundation. In 2006, Maximo became a trustee of Pedro Pan Group, a non-profit organization for immigrant children. In 2010, he was inducted into the Belmont Abbey Wall of Fame and later received a doctor’s degree honoris causa in 2015. He also serves as a trustee for The First Tee, a junior program that sets out to positively impact the lives of young people through the game of golf. Sunshine has also been a constant sponsor of Centro Hispano Catolico and Miami Children’s Hospital.
In March 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the appointment of Maximo Alvarez to the Florida State University Board of Trustees.
Ambassador Martin Palous
Trustee and Director of International Cooperation
Ambassador Martin Palous is a TRS trustee, senior fellow at Florida International University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), director of SIPA’s Václav Havel Center for Human Rights and Diplomacy initiative, and former permanent representative to the United Nations for the Czech Republic.
A founding member of the Civic Forum, he was elected to the Czechoslovakian Federal Assembly in 1990 and became a member of its Foreign Affairs Committee. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia as adviser to Minister Dienstbier and was deputy minister of foreign affairs, followed by deputy minister of foreign affairs of the newly formed Czech Republic. In 2002, President Václav Havel appointed him as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic to the United States. Martin was then designated as ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United Nations, where he served in New York from 2006 through 2010.
Martin received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Charles University in 1973, and went on to study philosophy, social sciences, and law. He also joined the Centre for Theoretical Studies, a research center run jointly by Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences, headed by Ivan M. Havel. In 2000, he earned his Ph.D. in international law at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic with a dissertation entitled “Freedom of Expression at the Beginning of the 21st Century.” He defended his higher doctorate 2001, going on to become an associate professor, member of faculty, and faculty’s vice dean at Charles University. He has also lectured at Central European University in Hungary, and extensively throughout the United States. Until 1998, Martin was active in various non-governmental organizations, including as chairman of the Czech Helsinki Committee and co-chairman of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly. Martin has authored numerous publications and translates the works of Hannah Arendt and Eric Voegelin.
Dr. Murray Bessette
Trustee and Associate Director of Education Programs
Dr. Murray Bessette is a TRS trustee and founding principal at Meritus Consulting, a consultancy offering mission-aligned executive search, innovative program design, signature event development, and bespoke research services.
Previously, he served as senior vice president of education at Common Sense Society from 2021 to 2024.
In this role, he was responsible for designing and implementing its fellowship programs, including the Carolina Fellowship (in Bluffton, SC), the John Quincy Adams Fellowship (in Washington, DC), the Founders Foreign Policy Fellowship (Northeast, US), the Britannia
Fellowship (Cotswolds, Britain), the Caledonia Fellowship (Edinburgh, Scotland), and the Europa Fellowship (Fehérvárcsurgó, Hungary). Bessette was also responsible for creating and directing its K-12 initiatives, which included a complete charter school curriculum, the American Civics Project, and a comprehensive series of teacher development programs—including seminars, workshops, and webinars—and for planning and executing the programming for its academic events.
Prior to joining Common Sense Society, Bessette served as director of academic programs at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation from 2016 to 2021, where he established its academic programs—K-12, college, China studies and Poland studies—in the lead up to the opening of the Victims of Communism Museum. He also was lead program organizer of the Foundation’s flagship events, which regularly include participation of US Representatives, US Senators, and former presidents and other senior governmental officials from Central and Eastern Europe.
Before joining the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Bessette was a tenured associate professor at Morehead State University where he taught and mentored undergraduate and graduate students, coordinated the undergraduate government program, and led the development and implementation of a new MA in government, as well as undergraduate and graduate certificates in intelligence studies.
Bessette has edited or authored numerous books, chapters, articles, and reviews; organized and presented at dozens of international and national conferences and panels; and co-directed more than $3 million in US federal grants. He was a Lincoln fellow of the Claremont Institute, an academic fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and has served as co director of the Bluegrass State Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence, president of the Kentucky Political Science Association, an academic advisory board member of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, and as a reviewer for Interpretation, Citizenship Studies, Cengage Learning, and Palgrave Macmillan. He holds a doctorate in political science and a master’s in American government from Claremont Graduate University, a master’s in political philosophy, a honours bachelor’s in political science, and certificate in globalization and governance studies from the University of Alberta, as well as an executive certificate in counter-terrorism studies from the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel.
Chris Marston
Secretary and Treasurer
Chris Marston is a principal at 2652 Group, LLC, a law firm serving tax-exempt organizations, and Election CFO, LLC, a compliance firm for political organizations. Prior to starting Election CFO in 2009, Marston served as an assistant secretary at the Department of Education. He also served in the George W. Bush administration at the Department of the Interior and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Marston earned his law degree at the Georgetown University Law Center and his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College.
He lives in Alexandria, Virginia, where he volunteers with Scouting America, and represents the Mount Vernon Dog Training Club as a delegate to the American Kennel Club.
Dan Runde
Trustee
Daniel F. Runde is a senior vice president, director of the Project on Prosperity and Development (PPD), and holds the William A. Schreyer Chair in Global Analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a leading global think tank. Mr. Runde also served as the acting director for the CSIS Americas Program from 2020-2022.
His work is oriented around U.S. leadership in building a more democratic and prosperous world. Among his many other contributions, Mr. Runde was as an architect of the BUILD Act, contributed to the reauthorization of the U.S. EXIM Bank in 2018, and was an architect of Prosper Africa, a U.S. government initiative to deepen the United States' commercial and development engagement in Africa. He has been a leading voice on the role and future of the World Bank Group and U.S. leadership in the multilateral system.
Prior to CSIS, Mr. Runde held leadership roles at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank Group. Earlier in his career, Mr. Runde worked in commercial banking at Citibank in Argentina and in investment banking at Alex. Brown & Sons. Mr. Runde was granted the Officer’s Cross in the Order of Isabel la Católica, a Spanish civil order.
Currently, he serves on the board of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), Spirit of America, and the Ashesi University Foundation. Mr. Runde is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bretton Woods Committee. He is also a columnist for The Hill and hosts a CSIS podcast series, Building the Future: Freedom, Prosperity, & Foreign Policy with Dan Runde. Mr. Runde is also the author of the book The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership through Soft Power (Bombardier Books, 2022). He previously chaired two U.S. government advisory committees: the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid at USAID and the Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee at the U.S. EXIM Bank. Fluent in Spanish, he graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College and holds a master’s in public policy from Harvard University.
Dr. Carlos Diaz-Rosillo
Trustee
The Honorable Carlos Díaz-Rosillo, PhD, is an accomplished educator, administrator, political and policy entrepreneur and strategist, public communicator, and former senior government official. He is Founding Director of the Florida International University Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom, where he is responsible for standing up and running the Center, setting its strategic vision, and developing and implementing its programs.
For four years, Dr. Díaz-Rosillo worked at the highest levels of the United States government, serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy and Interagency Coordination at the White House, Senior Deputy Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He also served as a senior member of the 2016-2017 presidential transition.
Before joining the government, Dr. Díaz-Rosillo was a member of the faculty of Government at Harvard University, where he taught popular courses on the American presidency, and also served as Assistant Dean of Harvard College. His areas of expertise include presidential power, policymaking and policy implementation, and national security policy.
Dr. Díaz-Rosillo holds dual undergraduate degrees in Civil Engineering and International Relations, summa cum laude, from Tufts University, two Master’s degrees in Public Policy and Government from Harvard, and a PhD in Government from Harvard.
Our Team
Kristina Olney Mallek
Executive Director
Kristina Olney Mallek is executive director and trustee of TRS. She previously served for six years as the director of Government Relations for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
In this role, she led the establishment of the bi-partisan Congressional Caucus for the Victims of Communism and established relationships with and secured dozens of Members of Congress, policymakers, Embassies, Ambassadors, and dignitaries to participate in events commemorating the victims of communism.
Kristina also led the organization’s campaign to establish November 7 as the U.S. National Day for the Victims of Communism, including letters and statements signed by influential allies, and arranging a meeting in the Oval Office with witnesses of communism.
After securing the first-ever Presidential Proclamation designating November 7 as the National Day for the Victims of Communism in 2017, she advocated for the same designation of November 7 by state governments across the country, which led to the introduction or enactment of such legislation by 13 states, in addition to federal legislation that was introduced by the VOC Caucus. She also led with allies in Florida the first legislative initiative in the country requiring high schools to teach the history of communism, which was signed by the Florida Governor in 2021.
Previously, she helped found and directed government relations and strategic communications for In Defense of Christians, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of ancient religious communities in the Middle East. In this role, she led the advocacy campaign calling for the United States to designate the ISIS crimes against Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria as genocide, including organizing a grassroots initiative that involved coordinating with local chapters of citizen supporters and church leaders hundreds of local and federal meetings with Congressional representatives. This campaign resulted in the U.S. Congress passing a resolution determining and subsequently the White House declaring the ISIS genocide in 2016.
Kristina also served for two years on Capitol Hill at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and as a Fellow on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ). She is an alumna of the National Endowment for Democracy's Penn Kemble Forum Fellowship, The Heritage Foundation’s Marshall Fellows Program, the Catholic Information Center's Leonine Forum, and of the John Jay Institute for Faith, Society, and Law Fellowship. She completed her B.A. in international relations at the Australian National University and her M.A. in international economic relations at American University. Her articles have appeared in publications including The Hill, First Things, National Review, and The Federalist.
Luca Takács
Director of Global Operations and Europe Outreach
Luca Viktória Takács is a seasoned director of operations with experience leading international teams and managing global projects from planning through execution, including budgetary oversight across various sectors. She has directed complex initiatives, including large-scale projects and exclusive galas across five continents, working closely with industry leaders and key stakeholders. Luca holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's degree in International Business.
David Hernandez
Director of Digital Marketing and SEO
David Hernandez is a seasoned SEO Specialist, Certified Author, and a pivotal contributor to the success stories at Need SEO Services. As a Certified SEO Specialist with over 8 years of mastery in the dynamic landscape of Search Engine Optimization and Digital Marketing, David Hernandez has steered businesses of diverse magnitudes toward commanding positions within the intricate web of search engine ecosystems, including securing top rankings on Google. As a Venezuelan, David had to endure the repression of a dictatorial government from his adolescence and faced long lines for food, a lack of medicine, and daily power and internet outages. During protests, he witnessed many of his peers who were killed for expressing their opposition to the regime and was constantly at risk of being arrested simply for defending his right to freedom, and he has since fled the country due to political persecution and now has the opportunity to raise his voice and to help ensure that future generations never have to suffer these atrocities again.
Albert Paulsson
Director of National Teacher and Student Programs
Albert Paulsson is the director of national teacher and student programs at TRS. He previously taught history, civics and economics for 25 years at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North in New Jersey and wrote the curriculum for a number of courses in the district. He also instructed and coordinated the district's We the People program where his students qualified multiple times for the national competition. In addition, Albert mentored new teachers, organized an annual 5-day trip to Washington D.C. for 11th grade students and coached varsity tennis where he was recognized as Central Jersey coach of the year. Most recently, he taught world history, American history, and civics at Vertex Academy in the Bronx, NYC.
Albert was recently recognized with a national award from the American Lawyers Alliance for his work in Civic and Legal education. He also received an Outstanding Educator Award by The University of Chicago. In addition, he has developed a curriculum for FIRE (The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) and instructed over 100 students at its Free Speech Forum summer program to help promote a deeper understanding of the First Amendment. Albert has also developed lessons and curriculum units for FAIR (Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism) to help promote learning that respects human rights and the dignity of the individual, The Woodson Center to help create resources for teachers on Empowering Black History, The Mill Center to help expand materials and teaching strategies on Viewpoint Diversity and for Manifold Production's film Created Equal - Clarence Thomas In His Own Words.
Mr. Paulsson is also on the Board for Garden State Classical Academy, a new institution that will be opening in 2025. In addition, he is a member of the American Enterprise Institute's Conservative Education Reform Network and a member on the Freedom in Education Advisory Board.
Albert Paulsson received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at The College of New Jersey.
Our Team
Kristina Olney
Executive Director
Kristina Olney is executive director and trustee of TRS. She previously served for six years as the director of Government Relations for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
In this role, she led the establishment of the bi-partisan Congressional Caucus for the Victims of Communism and established relationships with and secured dozens of Members of Congress, policymakers, Embassies, Ambassadors, and dignitaries to participate in events commemorating the victims of communism.
Kristina also led the organization’s campaign to establish November 7 as the U.S. National Day for the Victims of Communism, including letters and statements signed by influential allies, and arranging a meeting in the Oval Office with witnesses of communism.
After securing the first-ever Presidential Proclamation designating November 7 as the National Day for the Victims of Communism in 2017, she advocated for the same designation of November 7 by state governments across the country, which led to the introduction or enactment of such legislation by 13 states, in addition to federal legislation that was introduced by the VOC Caucus. She also led with allies in Florida the first legislative initiative in the country requiring high schools to teach the history of communism, which was signed by the Florida Governor in 2021.
Previously, she helped found and directed government relations and strategic communications for In Defense of Christians, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of ancient religious communities in the Middle East. In this role, she led the advocacy campaign calling for the United States to designate the ISIS crimes against Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria as genocide, including organizing a grassroots initiative that involved coordinating with local chapters of citizen supporters and church leaders hundreds of local and federal meetings with Congressional representatives. This campaign resulted in the U.S. Congress passing a resolution determining and subsequently the White House declaring the ISIS genocide in 2016.
Kristina also served for two years on Capitol Hill at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and as a Fellow on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ). She is an alumna of the National Endowment for Democracy's Penn Kemble Forum Fellowship, The Heritage Foundation’s Marshall Fellows Program, the Catholic Information Center's Leonine Forum, and of the John Jay Institute for Faith, Society, and Law Fellowship. She completed her B.A. in international relations at the Australian National University and her M.A. in international economic relations at American University. Her articles have appeared in publications including The Hill, First Things, National Review, and The Federalist.
Luca Takács
Director of Global Operations and Europe Outreach
Luca Viktória Takács is a seasoned director of operations with experience leading international teams and managing global projects from planning through execution, including budgetary oversight across various sectors. She has directed complex initiatives, including large-scale projects and exclusive galas across five continents, working closely with industry leaders and key stakeholders. Luca holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's degree in International Business.
David Hernandez
Director of Digital Marketing and SEO
David Hernandez is a seasoned SEO Specialist, Certified Author, and a pivotal contributor to the success stories at Need SEO Services. As a Certified SEO Specialist with over 8 years of mastery in the dynamic landscape of Search Engine Optimization and Digital Marketing, David Hernandez has steered businesses of diverse magnitudes toward commanding positions within the intricate web of search engine ecosystems, including securing top rankings on Google. As a Venezuelan, David had to endure the repression of a dictatorial government from his adolescence and faced long lines for food, a lack of medicine, and daily power and internet outages. During protests, he witnessed many of his peers who were killed for expressing their opposition to the regime and was constantly at risk of being arrested simply for defending his right to freedom, and he has since fled the country due to political persecution and now has the opportunity to raise his voice and to help ensure that future generations never have to suffer these atrocities again.
Academic Council
Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer is the director of the Cold War Studies Project at the Davis Center. He is the author and/or editor of several books and has written nearly 200 articles on a variety of topics. He has worked extensively in newly opened archives in all the former Warsaw Pact countries and several Western countries. He edits both the Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series and the peer-reviewed Journal of Cold War Studies.
Prof. Dr. Benjamin Ginsberg
Prof. Dr. Benjamin Ginsberg is the David Bernstein Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Hopkins Center for Advanced Governmental Studies in Washington, D.C. His research interests include American politics, Jewish history, higher education policy, and the societal impact of war and violence. He is the author, coauthor or editor of 29 books and is currently working on a survey-based study of the ways in which competing political forces seek to manipulate history and re-predict the future entitled, “Warping Time”.
Andrew Nagorski
Andrew Nagorski was born in Edinburgh, Scotland to Polish parents, moved to the United States as an infant and has rarely stopped moving since. As a newly minted U.S. citizen, his father joined the foreign service, which meant that Andrew grew up in Cairo, Seoul, and Paris.
He attended Amherst College and then taught social studies in a Massachusetts high school, before embarking on his career as an award-winning journalist and author who spent more than three decades as a foreign correspondent and editor for Newsweek. He served as the magazine’s bureau chief in Hong Kong, Rome, Bonn, Berlin, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1982, he gained international notoriety when the Soviet government, angry about his enterprising reporting, expelled him from the country. Nagorski now lives in St. Augustine, Florida but continues to travel extensively, writing for numerous publications. He is the author of eight books, including Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power, 1941: The Year Germany Lost the War and The Nazi Hunters. His latest book, Saving Freud: The Rescuers Who Brought Him to Freedom, has received rave reviews. As The Washington Post put it, “Nagorski tells a riveting new story, one that shows just how narrow Freud’s escape from the Nazi genocide was.” The Wall Street Journal called it “a psychobiographical thriller about the limits of genius,” and The Guardian wrote “Thrilling . . . as edge-of-your-seat gripping as any heist movie.” Nagorski is also chairman of the board of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, a member of the board of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Overseas Press Club, and a former member of the board of the Jacksonville World Affairs Council. Visit www.andrewnagorski.com
Dr. Aaron Rhodes
Dr. Aaron Rhodes is a human rights activist, writer, and advocate for the reform of human rights institutions and practice. He is president of the Forum for Religious Freedom – Europe, an independent nongovernmental organization based in Vienna. He was Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights between 1993 and 2007.
Rhodes was a co-founder of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and the Freedom Rights Project, a think-tank, and was formerly a Senior Fellow in the Common Sense Society. He was educated at Reed College (Oregon) and The University of Chicago, where he was awarded a PhD in the Committee on Social Thought. In recognition of his human rights work, he was granted honorary citizenship by the Republic of Austria in 2008. He was also awarded a Public Service Citation by The University of Chicago, as “one of leading human rights activists in the world,” and was recognized by the Moscow Helsinki Group for his contributions to the Helsinki human rights movement. Rhodes has authored around 170 articles, book chapters, reviews and editorials, and taught at a number of universities in the United States and Europe. His book, The Debasement of Human Rights, was published in 2018 by Encounter Books (New York). A second book, tentatively titled Universalism and the Crisis in International Human Rights, is forthcoming. He lives in Hamburg, Germany, with his family.
Paul du Quenoy
Paul du Quenoy
Over a 15-year academic career, Dr. du Quenoy taught history and other humanities courses at Georgetown, the American University in Cairo, and the American University of Beirut. A Fulbright scholar, he has also held fellowships from the American Historical Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Danube Institute, and Hokkaido University, in Japan. His books include Stage Fright: Politics and the Performing Arts in Late Imperial Russia (2009), Wagner and French Muse: Music, Society, and Nation in Modern France (2011), Alexander Serov and the Birth of the Russian Modern (2016), Through the Years With Prince Charming: The Collected Music Criticism of Paul du Quenoy, 2010-2020 (2021), and Cancel Culture: Tales from the Front Lines (2021). In 2021, he became president of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute (PBFI), a public affairs institute of national and international notoriety that promotes civil rights, constitutional principles, and the exceptionalism of the American experience. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, the New York Post, the Daily Telegraph, Spectator, the Washington Times, the New Criterion, Spectator, The Critic, Los Angeles Review of Books, American Conservative, European Conservative, City Journal, Tablet, Musical America, Chronicles, International History Review, American Historical Review, Journal of Modern History, and others. Dr. du Quenoy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Ben Franklin Fellowship.
Dr. Carlos Diaz-Rosillo
The Honorable Carlos Díaz-Rosillo, PhD, is an accomplished educator, administrator, political and policy entrepreneur and strategist, public communicator, and former senior government official. He is Founding Director of the Florida International University Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom, where he is responsible for standing up and running the Center, setting its strategic vision, and developing and implementing its programs.
For four years, Dr. Díaz-Rosillo worked at the highest levels of the United States government, serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy and Interagency Coordination at the White House, Senior Deputy Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He also served as a senior member of the 2016-2017 presidential transition.
Before joining the government, Dr. Díaz-Rosillo was a member of the faculty of Government at Harvard University, where he taught popular courses on the American presidency, and also served as Assistant Dean of Harvard College. His areas of expertise include presidential power, policymaking and policy implementation, and national security policy.
Dr. Díaz-Rosillo holds dual undergraduate degrees in Civil Engineering and International Relations, summa cum laude, from Tufts University, two Master’s degrees in Public Policy and Government from Harvard, and a PhD in Government from Harvard.
Advisory Council
Dr. Carlos Ponce
Dr. Carlos Ponce has over three decades of experience in strategic planning, governance, civil society development, nonprofit management, and human rights, as well as managing multiple businesses and organizations. He has planned, managed, monitored, and fundraised for multiple programs and multiple countries funded by entities like USAID, DRL, DOS, the European Union, Government of Japan, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, DFAIT, NED, the World Bank, among others.
As a consultant, Dr. Ponce has advised numerous nonprofits, government agencies, and private companies on strategic management, governance, accountability, social responsibility, fundraising, planning, regulatory/legal, and human rights. He has been board member for international nonprofit networks, including the World Movement for Democracy, Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy, and the Community of Democracies. He holds a Law and Policy Doctorate from Northeastern University, a Master Degree (Magna Cum Laude) in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School, a Master in Arts in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University, and a JD/Law Degree at the AB Catholic University.
He is the executive Director and Chief Financial Officer at Consorcio Justicia Inc, managing several Department of State and USAID projects and he is adjunct professor at Northeastern University, adjunct at Framingham State University, learning facilitator and adjunct at Boston University Questrom School of Business, and adjunct professor at John Hopkins University. Previously, he directed the Latin America and Caribbean programs at Freedom House, he was the General Coordinator at the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy, and he was the Latin America and Caribbean Director at Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He worked in projects with the World Bank, Verizon, Inter-American Developing Bank, European Union, Canada’s CIDA, among others. He was a Senior Lecturer at Columbia University, teaching several nonprofit management courses, and he was also faculty at Tufts University, University of New Hampshire, UCV and UCAB.
As an artist, he had multiple exhibits and awards as a painter, including exhibits in NY, RI, MA, FL, Tokyo/Japan, and California. He is a columnist for El Tiempo Latino newspaper and has published several books and articles.
Evgeny Savostiyanov
Evgeny Savostiyanov was one of the leaders of the electoral campaign in 1988 of the famous Soviet dissident Academician Andrei Sakharov. After the failure of the August 1991 coup attempt, he personally shut down the headquarters of the Communist Party of the USSR. From 1991 to 1994, he headed the Moscow Office of the FSB and he worked from 1996 to 1998 as deputy head of the administration of President Yeltsin.
He later participated in democratic political movements and made a brief run for the presidency of Russia in 2000. In 2009, he initiated a movement for Russian-American rapprochement. He is the author of several books, including, “Secret Services on the Edge” (2017), “Democrat & Counterspy” (2020), and “I shut down the CPSU” (2023).
Dr. Taras Kuzio
Dr. Taras Kuzio is Professor in the Department of Political Science, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy. Previous positions were at the International Institute of Strategic Studies; NATO Information and Documentation Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine, George Washington University; German Marshall Fund of the US, Washington DC; School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; and Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta.
Education: PhD in political science from the University of Birmingham, England; MA Soviet and East European Studies from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London; and BA in Economics from the University of Sussex. Published Books: author and editor of 24 books, including Russian Disinformation and Western Scholarship (2023), Fascism and Genocide. Russia’s War Against Ukrainians (2023); Russian Nationalism and the Russian-Ukrainian War (2022); Putin’s War Against Ukraine (2017, 2019). Published Think Tank Monographs and Scholarly Articles: Author of 7 think tank monographs, including Crimea: Where Russia’s War Started and Where Ukraine Will Win (2024); The Crimea: Europe’s Next Flashpoint? (2010) and 165 book chapters and scholarly articles on Soviet, Ukrainian, Russian, and Eurasian geopolitics.
Anne Smith
Anne Smith knows government both in the halls of the US Capitol and through the steps of the State House in Concord, NH. Her company started with one non-profit and grew to include government contractors, foreign governments and political parties, businesses and start ups. Successes include lobbying activities leading to the acquisition of a small business to a major defense contractor and the sale of US technology abroad. She has been the Executive Director of nonprofit and for profit entities including working with technology, service and manufacturing companies throughout NH. Her career began as a US Senate staff member shepherding legislation through Congress during the terms of three Presidents.
Daniel Di Martino
Daniel Di Martino is a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a PhD candidate in Economics at Columbia University. His research focuses on immigration, especially selection, assimilation, and highly skilled immigration. Born and raised in Venezuela, Di Martino experienced the terrible consequences of socialism firsthand.
After leaving Venezuela for the U.S. in 2016, he dedicated himself to explaining how socialism destroyed his homeland, advocating for its freedom, and stopping this ideology from ever being implemented in America and elsewhere. Di Martino has appeared on Fox News and CNN, and written for USA Today, National Review, City Journal and New York Post, among others. He is a regular speaker on college campuses and events across the country. He sits on the board of advisors of Young America’s Foundation‘s Center for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise, and he is a member of the New Jersey State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In addition to his economic research on immigration and his media appearances, Di Martino founded the Dissident Project to teach high school students about the evils of socialist regimes.
Marta Fedirow
Marta Fedoriw has been a long-time community activist for Ukraine.
Coming to the United States with her parents in 1952, fleeing the Soviets as they went into Western Ukraine, Marta was raised in the United States, her home.
Upon completion of a BA degree in French and English, Marta taught in high schools in NJ, before stopping to raise her family.
As a member of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America br. 91 in Bethlehem, PA she began advocating for Ukraine on many issues, working with both Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress as well as with the media.
One of her first Congressmen was US Representative Don Ritter who became a founding member of the Baltic States and Ukraine Caucus in the US House of Representatives and a founding Member of the US Congressional Helsinki Commission. Marta Fedoriw continues to work with former Congressman Don Ritter to this day serving as an advisor to The Remembrance Society.
At a United Nations conference on “The Gross Human Rights Violations Due to the Aggression Against Ukraine” held on February 22nd, 2024, Marta Fedoriw addressed the panel discussion on the violations of the rights of the child with a statement from US Congresswoman Susan Wild about House Res. 149 which condemns Russia for the abduction of Ukraine’s children.
Most recently, on April 18, 2025, Marta Fedoriw was interviewed on CNN regarding the abduction of children from Ukraine by Russia, answering questions related to the peace negotiations process and the return of Ukraine’s Children.
Marta Fedoriw serves as Director of the Return Ukrainian Children initiative of the Ukrainian Children Organization.
Daniel Di Martino
Daniel Di Martino is a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a PhD candidate in Economics at Columbia University. His research focuses on immigration, especially selection, assimilation, and highly skilled immigration. Born and raised in Venezuela, Di Martino experienced the terrible consequences of socialism firsthand.
After leaving Venezuela for the U.S. in 2016, he dedicated himself to explaining how socialism destroyed his homeland, advocating for its freedom, and stopping this ideology from ever being implemented in America and elsewhere. Di Martino has appeared on Fox News and CNN, and written for USA Today, National Review, City Journal and New York Post, among others. He is a regular speaker on college campuses and events across the country. He sits on the board of advisors of Young America’s Foundation‘s Center for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise, and he is a member of the New Jersey State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In addition to his economic research on immigration and his media appearances, Di Martino founded the Dissident Project to teach high school students about the evils of socialist regimes.
Daniel Di Martino
Daniel Di Martino is a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a PhD candidate in Economics at Columbia University. His research focuses on immigration, especially selection, assimilation, and highly skilled immigration. Born and raised in Venezuela, Di Martino experienced the terrible consequences of socialism firsthand.
After leaving Venezuela for the U.S. in 2016, he dedicated himself to explaining how socialism destroyed his homeland, advocating for its freedom, and stopping this ideology from ever being implemented in America and elsewhere. Di Martino has appeared on Fox News and CNN, and written for USA Today, National Review, City Journal and New York Post, among others. He is a regular speaker on college campuses and events across the country. He sits on the board of advisors of Young America’s Foundation‘s Center for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise, and he is a member of the New Jersey State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In addition to his economic research on immigration and his media appearances, Di Martino founded the Dissident Project to teach high school students about the evils of socialist regimes.
Dr. Carlos Diaz-Rosillo
The Honorable Carlos Díaz-Rosillo, PhD, is an accomplished educator, administrator, political and policy entrepreneur and strategist, public communicator, and former senior government official. He is Founding Director of the Florida International University Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom, where he is responsible for standing up and running the Center, setting its strategic vision, and developing and implementing its programs.
For four years, Dr. Díaz-Rosillo worked at the highest levels of the United States government, serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy and Interagency Coordination at the White House, Senior Deputy Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He also served as a senior member of the 2016-2017 presidential transition.
Before joining the government, Dr. Díaz-Rosillo was a member of the faculty of Government at Harvard University, where he taught popular courses on the American presidency, and also served as Assistant Dean of Harvard College. His areas of expertise include presidential power, policymaking and policy implementation, and national security policy.
Dr. Díaz-Rosillo holds dual undergraduate degrees in Civil Engineering and International Relations, summa cum laude, from Tufts University, two Master’s degrees in Public Policy and Government from Harvard, and a PhD in Government from Harvard.
The Remembrance Society is proud to partner with the following international educational and human rights organizations and historic societies in advancing truth, memory, and liberty for the victims of totalitarianism.
