About Us News/Press Meet Our Scholars Scholars & Faculty
 Conferences
2005 Conference
Summary
Photos & Video
Speakers
Agenda
2004 Conference
2002 Conference
2001 Conference
2000 Conference
Other Events
 

Event Speakers

Following are brief biographies of the distinguished panelists who participated in the 2005 Siebel Scholars Annual Conference. Please click the name you are interested in below to show/hide the bio.

Carren Clem
Teens in Crisis mentor for parents of children with addictive and at-risk behaviors


In 2001, Carren Clem was enrolled for 17 months at the Caribbean Center for Change in Tranquility Bay, Jamaica, for her addiction to methamphetamines. Her parents placed her in this program following a suicide attempt. Today she is a volunteer for a nonprofit organization called Teens in Crisis as a mentor, speaker, and family support resource for parents struggling with children involved in addictive and at-risk behaviors. During the past two years she has made more than 40 appearances speaking in public schools and to parents in town hall meetings concerning the dangers of drug addiction. Ms. Clem attended Flathead Valley Community College from August 2002 to June 2004, earning a full-year academic scholarship for the year 2004. Ms. Clem is currently a junior at Montana State University in Bozeman, where she studies hospitality. She has worked for a year in various roles at Yellowstone National Park.

Sam Donaldson
Award-winning journalist for ABC News


Sam Donaldson, a 37-year ABC News veteran, served two appointments as chief White House correspondent for ABC News from January 1998 to August 1999 and from 1977 through 1989, covering Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Clinton. Mr. Donaldson also co-anchored, with Diane Sawyer, PrimeTime Live from August 1989, until it merged with 20/20 in 1999. He co-anchored the ABC News Sunday morning broadcast, This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts, from December 1996 to September 2002. From October 2001 to May 2004, he hosted The Sam Donaldson Show—Live In America, a daily news/talk radio program broadcast on ABC News Radio affiliates across the country. Currently Mr. Donaldson is appearing on ABC News Now, the ABC News digital network. His daily half-hour show Politics Live is an unscripted dialogue with numerous guests and commentators discussing the top political news stories of the day. In 1998, he received the Broadcaster of the Year award from the National Press Foundation. Mr. Donaldson has won many other awards, among them four Emmy Awards and three George Foster Peabody Awards.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Mr. Donaldson received his bachelor’s degree from Texas Western College and did graduate work at the University of Southern California. His 1987 autobiography, Hold On, Mr. President, was an international best-seller.

Michael O. Leavitt
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services


Michael O. Leavitt was sworn in as the 20th secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on January 26, 2005. As secretary, he leads national efforts to protect the health of all Americans and provide essential human services to those in need. He manages the largest civilian department in the federal government, with more than 66,000 employees and a budget that accounts for almost one out of every four federal dollars. Prior to his current service, Mr. Leavitt served as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and governor of Utah. The people of Utah elected Mr. Leavitt governor three times. Prior to leaving the statehouse to work in the Bush Administration, he was the nation's longest-serving governor. He was chosen by the nation's governors to represent the states in Congress on welfare reform, Medicaid, and children's health insurance. In Mr. Leavitt's previous public service he has always pursued three goals: to leave things better than he found them, to plant seeds for the next generation, and to give it his all. Born February 11, 1951, in Cedar City, Utah, Mr. Leavitt graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics and business from Southern Utah University.

Barry R. McCaffrey
Former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)


General Barry R. McCaffrey is president of his own consulting firm based in Arlington, Virginia. He serves as a national security and terrorism analyst for NBC News and writes a column on national security issues for Armed Forces Journal. He is also an adjunct professor of international affairs at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. From January 2001 to May 2005, General McCaffrey served as the Bradley Distinguished Professor of International Security Studies. General McCaffrey served as the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) from February 1996 through January 2001. He also served as a member of President Clinton’s cabinet and the National Security Council for drug-related issues. As ONDCP director, he coordinated the $19 billion federal drug control budget and developed the U.S. National Drug Control Strategy.

General McCaffrey graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He holds a master of arts degree in civil government from American University. He attended the Harvard University National Security Program as well as the Business School Executive Education Program.

Mike McGrath
Attorney general of Montana


Mike McGrath was elected Montana’s 19th attorney general in November 2000 and was unopposed for his second term in 2004. In his dual role as the state’s chief law enforcement officer and legal official, Mr. McGrath oversees a staff of more than 700, including attorneys, forensic scientists, investigators, Montana Highway Patrol officers, motor vehicle professionals, gambling control specialists, information technology professionals, and support staff members. Prior to his election, Mr. McGrath served five terms as Lewis and Clark county attorney. In his 18 years as a prosecutor, Mr. McGrath focused on family violence issues, including domestic abuse and sexual assault of children. A Butte native, Mr. McGrath earned a degree in business administration from the University of Montana in 1970 and graduated from Gonzaga University Law School in 1975. He is a veteran of the United States Air Force. He has been actively involved on the boards of Big Brothers, Big Sisters; the Montana Council for Families; the Montana chapter of the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse; the Montana Legal Services Association; and the Helena Youth Basketball Association.

A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D.
Professor of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and executive director of the Treatment Research Institute


Dr. Thomas McLellan is a professor of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder and executive director of the Treatment Research Institute, a not-for-profit research and development institute in Philadelphia. Dr. McLellan is nationally and internationally recognized for his more than 30 years of research into treatment outcomes for substance abuse patients. He was principal developer of the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) and the Treatment Services Review (TSR), measurement instruments that characterize the multiple dimensions of problems confronting substance abusing patients and the types and duration of treatment services offered in response. He has published more than 400 articles and chapters on addiction research and serves as editor in chief of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. He has served as an advisor to many government and nonprofit scientific organizations, including the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Research, and Evaluation; the National Practice Laboratory of the American Psychiatric Association; the Swiss National Science Foundation; the World Health Organization; and the Greek government.

Dr. McLellan received his bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. He received postgraduate training in psychology at Oxford University in England.

David Murray, Ph.D.
Special assistant to the director of the ONDCP


Dr. David Murray earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and subsequently taught at Connecticut College, Brown University, and Brandeis University before coming to Washington, where he served as an adjunct professor in the graduate school of public policy at Georgetown University. He has been executive director of the Statistical Assessment Service (a science, media, and public policy think tank), served on the U.S. Census Monitoring Board, and is co-author of (most recently) the Penguin Press book, It Ain’t Necessarily So: How Media Remake the Scientific Picture of Reality. He currently serves as special assistant to the director, ONDCP.

Bryan Samuels
Director of the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services


Bryan Samuels is director of the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services. Since his April 2003 appointment by Governor Rod R. Blagojevich to lead the nation’s oldest cabinet-level state child welfare agency, Mr. Samuels has instituted a series of reforms to better serve a changing foster care population, locate missing wards, and equip child welfare professionals to manage real-world challenges. Mr. Samuels began his Illinois public career in 1990 as an assistant with the Human Services Department under then Governor James Thompson, where he served as liaison between the governor and the state’s human service agencies. In addition to his academic and public service record, Mr. Samuels also brings personal insights to the state’s top child welfare office. While he was never a state ward, Mr. Samuels did experience a lifestyle similar to many children served in group homes and institutions. Those experiences helped shape his commitment to serve children who live in foster care and reinforced his belief that dedicated people and well-developed services can make a dramatic impact on young lives. Mr. Samuels earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Notre Dame, as well as a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago.

Richard W. Sanders
Special agent in charge of the Chicago field division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)


Richard Sanders is the special agent in charge of the Chicago field division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In this position, Mr. Sanders provides direction and supervision for all DEA operations that are conducted throughout the states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. He is responsible for ensuring that the established DEA and Chicago field division program goals and objectives are effectively implemented and responsive to the needs of counterpart state and local law enforcement agencies, other federal law enforcement officials, and the citizens of those states.

Mr. Sanders began his law enforcement career with the Jefferson County police department in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1971. He began his federal drug law enforcement career in 1983. He has a bachelor of science degree in police administration and a master of science degree in justice administration from the University of Louisville.

Thomas M. Siebel
Chairman of the board of Siebel Systems; cofounder of the Thomas & Stacey Siebel Foundation


Thomas M. Siebel founded Siebel Systems in 1993 and today serves as chairman of the board. Before founding Siebel Systems, Mr. Siebel served as chief executive officer of Gain Technology, a multimedia software company that merged with Sybase in December 1992. From 1984 through 1990, he was an executive at Oracle Corporation, where he held a number of senior management positions. Mr. Siebel serves on the board of advisors of the Hoover Institution; University of Illinois, College of Engineering; the University of Illinois Foundation; and the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business. Mr. Siebel is a director of the Montana Historical Society and chairman of the Montana Meth Project. He is a frequent industry spokesperson and is the author of three books—Taking Care of eBusiness and Cyber Rules published by Doubleday and Virtual Selling published by the Free Press.

Mr. Siebel is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received a BA in history, an MBA, and an MS in computer science.

S. Alex Stalcup, M.D.
Medical director of the New Leaf Treatment Center in Lafayette, California


Dr. S. Alex Stalcup is a graduate of Whittier College and a graduate of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He is board certified in pediatrics, certified in addiction medicine by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), and certified as a medical review officer by ASAM and the Medical Review Officers Certifying Council (MROCC). In 1990, after three years at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco, Dr. Stalcup opened a private practice in addiction medicine. Since 1996, he has served as the medical director of the New Leaf Treatment Center in Lafayette, California. Dr. Stalcup also serves as a lecturer and consultant for drug treatment and chemical dependency issues to both public and private agencies in California and nationally. He has also published numerous studies on the topic of methamphetamine. From 1998 to 2001, Dr. Stalcup served as co-project director for a CSAT grant covering a randomized trial of two treatments for methamphetamine users.

Eames Yates
Emmy-award-winning director of Crank: Made in America


Emmy Award-winning director Eames Yates has produced, directed, and reported six one-hour documentary films for HBO’s America Undercover series since 1996. His latest documentary film, Crank: Made in America, examines methamphetamine abuse in rural America and aired on HBO this past spring. Crank: Made in America has won the International Medical Media Award and the Entertainment Industry’s Prism Award. Currently Mr. Yates is working on his latest film, Aging in America, for HBO. Mr. Yates began his career working for the NBC Nightly News in Washington, D.C. in 1977 as a copy boy, providing desk assistance, and as David Brinkley’s production assistant. While at NBC, he also worked for Meet the Press as a researcher. Other notable works include the Emmy-nominated documentary series for The Discovery Network entitled SPYTEK, narrated by Roger Moore, and award-winning documentaries for ABC News Closeup. Mr. Yates currently lives in New York City and runs his own production company. He serves on the National Board and East Coast Council of the Directors Guild of America. He is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Back to top

About Us | News/Press | Meet Our Scholars | Conferences | Scholars & Faculty