Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will be a faculty member at the Council's 2012 Public Affairs Institute.

Richardson will address state-level policy challenges during two class sessions.

The Institute, to be held Jan. 8-12 in Laguna Beach, Calif., is the nation's foremost career-building program for rising public affairs professionals. The three-year program helps participants strengthen their skills as strategic analysts, counselors to senior managers and liaisons to government policy makers, businesses and community leaders. Past Institute faculty have included ambassadors, Cabinet officers, congressional members, business executives, university professors, authors, journalists, think tank specialists and opinion leaders.

Other faculty at the Institute will include: Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report and premier election handicapper, who will speak on trends surrounding the 2012 elections; and Lori Knowles, a bioethics, law and policy consultant at the University of Alberta, who will discuss considerations — and consequences — of managing the application of new biotechnology advances.

More faculty will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

For more information, visit www.pac.org/institute, or contact Jen Poos at (202) 721-0902 or by email.