Jane Harman, the Woodrow Wilson Center's director, president and CEO, who served nine terms representing California in Congress, has joined the faculty of the Council's 2012 Public Affairs Institute.

Harman will cover global political risk, exploring how political developments can affect businesses' operating environments, 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 hone 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 officials, members of Congress, business executives, university professors, authors, journalists, think tank specialists and opinion leaders.

Also among the Institute's faculty are: Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who will address state-level policy challenges; 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 — in managing the application of new biotechnology advances.

For more information, visit www.pac.org/institute or contact Sheree Anne Kelly at (202) 721-0901 or via email.