The University of Montana will conduct a three-part, two-way Economic Empowerment Program for approximately 38 professionals: 28 mid-level, emerging leaders with a strong interest in issues of economic empowerment that affect the broader society from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, and approximately 10 U.S. participants.

The program goal is to promote mutual understanding, enhance leadership skills, and build lasting and sustainable partnerships between mid-level emerging leaders, with a focus on the promotion of sustainable and inclusive community economic development and the economic empowerment of women and marginalized populations, specifically ethnic minority populations.

Two groups of foreign participants will spend approximately 35 days each in the United States in either May-June or October-November 2014; including individually tailored working placements with Montana-based small and family-owned businesses, non-governmental and governmental organizations, educational institutions, and financial institutions, followed by the concluding Professional Fellows Congress in Washington, DC.  

One groups of U.S. participants will then travel overseas to spend approximately 16 days in January 2015 working with their counterparts in their workplaces and communities in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

LMI participants will be in DC for the Professional Fellows Congress June 4-6 and November 5-7, following their month in Montana.

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