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Michael Struett
President
Dr. Michael J. Struett is Associate Professor of Political Science in the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University.
Dr. Struett is generally interested in the evolution of norms in world politics, and the role of international organizations and international law in contributing to world order. He teaches courses on Global Governance and International Organizations, International Law, the United Nations, and International Relations theory. Much of his work focuses on the impact of non-governmental organizations in world politics, particularly the importance of their participation in processes of global governance.
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Beth Dehghan
Vice President
Beth Dehghan is Past President and Founder of WomenNC, an organization she founded in 2012 to raise a generation that honors women’s rights as human rights and advocate for the gender equality agenda in North Carolina. She also founded the NC Coalition for CEDAW (Contention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women). She has attended the annual United Nationals Commission the Status of Women (CSW) every year since 1997. Since 1995, she has been a member of the International NGO Committee for the U.N. CSW. Also a public speaker, community volunteer, event organizer, and board member of several philanthropic organizations (UNA-Wake Chapter, Wake County Commission for Women, InterAct, Stop Child Abuse in NC, Woman’s Club of Raleigh and Cary, and UN Women NC Chapter). Beth has a B.S. in Agronomy from LSU, and was enrolled in Duke’s Continuing Education Non-Profit Management program. Beth is an entrepreneur and family business manager along with her husband, with whom she lives in Cary. They have two daughters who work in Houston and Washington D.C.
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Robert Lamb
Treasurer, Events Chair
Education
Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics, University of California Berkeley
Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science, University of California Los Angeles
Employment
Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Research Triangle Park, NC
Radio Computing Services, Scarsdale, NY
Retired 2005
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Catherine Maxwell
Secretary, Chair of Administration
Catherine Maxwell is Director of Partnership Development for Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural University, a U.S. institution located in Honduras serving Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining Zamorano, she served almost three decades in fundraising and partnership development roles at NC State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Meredith College.
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Dan Figgins
Chair of Community Partnerships
Dan Figgins first became a member of the United Nations Association when he was in high school in the 1950s in Des Moines, Iowa. When he was attending Grinnell College in Iowa he was for one year the National Vice-President of the Collegiate Council for the United Nations (CCUN). He had the thrilling experience of introducing Eleanor Roosevelt at a CCUN meeting in New York.
When Dr. Figgins (Ph.D. Syracuse University) came to live in Raleigh as Diplomat-in-Residence to six Historically Black Colleges and Universities in 1999 he joined the UN Association chapter in Chapel Hill because he knew Helaine Blout whom he had met when she worked for the United Nations Children’s Fund. (Helaine just celebrated her 100th birthday.) Soon thereafter he joined the UN Association chapter in Raleigh.
Dan has retired from a Foreign Service Career after 25 years and retired from a university teaching career after 28 years. He is married to Deanna Figgins with whom he shares 8 grandchildren in North Carolina and Oakland California and he also visits his daughter in New York City.
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- United Nations General Assembly in New York
- United Nations Office to the several Specialized Agencies in Geneva
- United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Vienna
- International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal
- Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi
As an FSO he also served in U.S. posts in: Lima, Peru; Monterrey, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and Washington D.C. in charge of Honduras and Nicaragua.
Dr. Figgins has taught at the US Airforce Academy in Colorado Springs, Bennett College Historically Black Women’s College in Greensboro, and North Carolina State University.
Dan helped to found WomenNC (the North Carolina Committee for the Commission on the Status of Women and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women) which was conceived and led by Beth Dehghan.
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Hector Javier
PR and Web
Hector R. Javier, PMP is a Past President of the UNA Wake County Chapter, former member of the National Board of Directors of UNA-USA, former member of the Steering Committee of the National Council of Chapters and Regions of UNA-USA, former National Chair of UNA-USA Young Professionals, and former UNA-USA delegate to the World Federation of UN Associations (WFUNA) Plenary Assembly. A Computer Engineering graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, he now works in the critical technology infrastructure sector as a Program Manager in global IT service management and customer experience in RTP. Aside from UNA-USA, he also volunteers for the National Association of Asian American Professionals as a Senior Adviser, is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Project Management Institute, and the Philippine American Association of North Carolina. He also graduated from the Regional Leadership program of Leadership Triangle, the FBI Citizens Academy, and the Emerging Leaders programs of the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. He studies at Harvard Business School Online and completed the Advanced Program Management program from Stanford and the Adaptive Strategic Execution program from Duke.
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Vaji Yegani
Board Member
Vaji Yegani is a retired Iranian Air Force major. He has a BS degree in computer science and with minor in math from NCSU. He has been a human rights activist throughout his life. He has been active with the UNA-Wake chapter for more than 20 years. His hobbies are gardening, learning new languages, reading, and keeping up with the news. He is a small business owner and lives with his wife Beth Dehghan in Cary, NC. He and Beth are proud parents of two brilliant daughters.