Town Hall Seattle: Civics Series
Town Hall’s Civics series highlights everything from local policies to world politics. These events offer perspectives on a range of topics as diverse as Seattle itself—a bustling forum for activism, discovery, and thought-provoking discussion.
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Mar 13, 2023
As President Vladimir Putin flung threats of nuclear retaliation during Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, we were given an important reminder of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. This terrifying wake-up call has dominated headlines for a year. President of Ploughshares Fund Dr. Emma Belcher knows the threat looms beyond the physical borders of Putin’s war and how they could easily find purchase on American soil. Join Dr. Belcher for a conversation moderated by The Honorable Gael Tarleton about the current state of global nuclear threats and the proximity of Seattleites to nuclear geopolitics.
Dr. Emma Belcher is president of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation dedicated to reducing the threat of nuclear weapons. Emma spent nearly a decade at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where she led the foundation’s Nuclear Challenges grantmaking program. There, she developed and built the foundation’s Nuclear Challenge Big Bet team. She also served as an advisor in Australia’s Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet on national security and international affairs. Emma has been on the TED platform twice, discussing the importance of confronting, humanizing, and ultimately solving the existential threat of nuclear weapons.
The Honorable Gael Tarleton, former Washington State Representative for the 36th legislative district (Seattle) from 2013-2021, began her career as a senior defense intelligence analyst for the Pentagon for a decade. She then ran two international subsidiaries of a Fortune 500 company in Russia, helping rebuild the country after the Cold War collapse by cleaning up nuclear waste and preventing environmental disasters. Tarleton co-founded the Northwest chapter of Women in International Security, was Port of Seattle Commissioner, and served as an advisor for the Institute for National Security Education and Research at UW and technical advisor for PNNL.
About Ploughshares Fund
For over four decades, Ploughshares Fund has supported the most effective advocates and organizations in the world to reduce and eventually eliminate the danger posed by nuclear weapons.