FIRST IAN AXFORD FELLOW TO VISIT

The first Ian Axford Fellow in Public Policy, Julie Frieder has arrived in New Zealand and will meet with Prime Minister Jim Bolger this afternoon.

Ms Frieder, an environmental protection specialist with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, is on a nine-month fellowship with the Ministry of the Environment to study environmental management in New Zealand.

Mr Bolger said the Fellowship, which complements the well-established Harkness Fellowship, was an opportunity for the United States and New Zealand to share valuable knowledge and experience.

This Fellowship is just another example of New Zealands ability to contribute to the international education field while also promoting relations between the United States and New Zealand.

The Fellowship - named after New Zealands foremost astrophysicist and space scientist Sir Ian Axford - is open to mid-career American public policy analysts.

It is administered by the New Zealand United States Educational Foundation and jointly funded by a group of Government departments and a number of private and corporate sponsors, including Air New Zealand, the National Bank, Carter Holt Harvey, Hewlett Packard and Ericsson Communications.

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For more information please contact:
Anna Kominik 4719 425 or 025 426 757

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Julie Frieder
1997 Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellow in Public Policy
Julie Frieder has a distinguished educational and professional background.

After completing a double Masters degree in environmental science and public policy from Indiana Universitys School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Ms Frieder was awarded a Presidential Management Fellowship.

This Fellowship led her to Washington DC - first to the US Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters and, one year later, to the US Presidents Council on Sustainable Development.

The Council was created by President Clinton as a domestic response to the 1992 Earth Summit. Its mission was to develop a national strategy for sustainable development in the United States. To that end, Ms Frieder led the Task Force on Eco-Efficiency through an 18 month multi-stakeholder process to develop goals and policies for achieving sustainable development in the US business and industry sector.

In August 1995, Ms Frieder returned to the Policy Office of the Environmental Protection Agency to take a position with the in-house team of policy entrepreneurs. Her work with this team involved developing and testing new ways for the EPA to do business so that superior environmental protection would be delivered with enhanced efficiency, accountability and equity.

Ms Frieder will return to the Environmental Protection Agency in January 1998, armed with new ideas and lessons from New Zealands experience with results-orientated environmental policy.

As a matter of background: Ms Frieder earned a BA in Psychology from the University of Rochester (New York) in 1986. From 1987-1990, Julie journeyed to the State of Israel where she was a founding member of a new Kibbutz in the north.

The Kibbutz promoted Arab-Jewish co-existence through education and cultural exchange, ran a block factory and grew mangos, avocados and grapefruit.

In 1990 and 1991, Ms Frieder was awarded the Lilly Fellowships in Public Policy and in 1992 she was recognised for her commitment to community service with John H Edwards Fellowship. Julie worked for the Monroe County Solid Waste Management District from 1990-1992 where she prepared the long range waste management plan to achieve waste reduction and recycling goals.

For more information on Ms Frieder and the Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowship please contact:

Jenny Gill
Executive Director,
New Zealand United States Educational Foundation
ph 04 472-2065