Upper School
We are thrilled to be celebrating the 26th year of the Tower Hill Forum!
The Forum was established in 1998 by the Rappolt family in honor of their children Gabrielle ‘93, Sarah ‘96 and Bill ‘99, and in recognition of the dedication, scholarship and professionalism of the Tower Hill faculty. The Tower Hill community thanks the Rappolts for the legacy of remarkable speakers over two decades.
Tara Malloy Fletcher, History Department Chair
Sarah Baker, Head of School
Each year since its inception in 1998, the Forum has brought experts and scholars to Tower Hill to speak to students about themes related to history, citizenship and international affairs. Among the speakers have been George Will, Stephen Ambrose, Gwen Ifill, Elie Wiesel, David Gergen, Joe Biden, Congressman John Lewis and Niall Ferguson.
Click here for Past Forums.
Click here for Past Forums.
2023-2024: Beyond Tower Hill: Alumni Making a Global Impact
Monday, October 16: Thomas Villalón '02
Wednesday, April 3: Nasir Wilson '15
Tom Villalón ’02
Tom Villalón is the co-founder of Rescue Afghan Women Now (RAWN), a group that rescues extremely high-risk Afghan women and children from Taliban capture/execution. Tom’s team liaises with individuals from the United States special forces, veteran, and intelligence communities, and they have coordinated operations that have successfully rescued more than 23 high-risk individuals to date (including individuals personally targeted by Taliban intelligence). His group is keeping alive 100+ high risk Afghan female soldiers and their dependents, all of whom are on Taliban kill lists, and who are in deep hiding throughout the country.
Tom began his career as an international arbitration lawyer at Covington & Burling LLP in New York City, and Bae, Kim & Lee in Seoul, South Korea. While he was working in New York in early 2021, a colleague asked him to represent an Afghan combat interpreter who was seeking a special visa. For several months, the task involved routine paperwork; however, as the U.S. forces pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021, everything changed. At once, thousands of Afghan citizens who had worked with the U.S. were unable to escape. While his law firm and others donated their time to help some on a pro bono basis, Tom wanted to do more. He left his position at the firm to establish RAWN and continue his work with the group on a full time basis.
Tom came to Tower Hill in second grade, after spending several years in Chile, where his father was raised. He went on to receive his B.A. with High Honors from Dartmouth College in 2006, and J.D. cum laude from the University of Hawaii (2013) where he was also one of two U.S. scholars awarded the Graduate Degree Fellowship from the East-West Center (2013). He speaks Chinese, Spanish, Korean and English, and is conversational in Arabic, German and Farsi. Tom's brothers, Nick Villalón ’00 and Dan Villalón ’99 also graduated from Tower Hill.
Watch the recording of Tom's speech below:
Watch the recording of Tom's speech below:
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Nasir Wilson ’15
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Nasir Wilson, THS C/O 2015, graduated from the University of Delaware in 2019 where he received his B.A. in Political Science and Criminal Justice. In May 2021, he graduated from the American University School of International Service (SIS) where he received his M.A. in United States Foreign Policy and National Security (USFP).He is a 2019 Pickering Fellow and former Pathways Intern. When he was selected as a Pickering Fellow, he was only the second person in UD’s history to receive the award. He has worked at the United States Department of State for the last 5 years in various bureaus such as the Bureau of Administration (A), the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN), the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA), and most recently, the Secretary's Executive Secretariat Staff (S/ES-S).
In S/ES-S, he served as the Department's Congressional Reports Coordinator where he helped the Department significantly reduce its overdue reports, as administration priorities for Secretaries Pompeo and Blinken. He is the recipient of various State Department awards such as the Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards as well as the Franklin Award.
Currently, Nasir is a management-coned Foreign Service Officer (FSO), aka diplomat, posted to U.S. Embassy Antananarivo, Madagascar where he covers both Madagascar and the Union of the Comoros. He serves as the Human Resources Officer and a Consular Officer, with diplomatic titles 3rd Secretary and Vice Consul. He is multilingual in English, Spanish, and French.
Watch the recording of Nasir's speech below:
