Bio

  • bio

Stephanie Freid Perenchio, a humanitarian documentary photographer, has long been involved with international issues such as the impact of war on​ local​ communities ​ and countries​ , maternal health, and ​ the empowerment of women and children around the world.​ She has been a member of the Los Angeles-based Pacific Council on Global Affairs for many years and has joined delegation trips ​to Afghanistan, North Korea, SOCom (United States Special Operations Command) ​, to name a few. ​

A resident of Sun Valley, Idaho, Stephanie recognized the interest that her community members had in global affairs. ​​Stephanie founded The Sun Valley Global Affairs Forum in 2010 to address the need for a higher level of engagement in national and international issues.

Since then, The Sun Valley Global Affairs Forum has brought leading foreign policy experts and humanitarian activists to Sun Valley to speak on some of the most pressing issues of the day. Over the past ​five years, the forum has hosted a respectable list of speakers: Pulitzer Prize-winning NY Times journalist Eric Schmitt; 3-Star Vice Admiral Robert S. Harward, Deputy Commander of US Central Command; Dr. Kiron Skinner, Director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for International Relations and Politics and a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and Dr. Erica Ollmann Saphire, professor of immunology and microbial science at Scripps Research Institute and the director of the Viral Hemorraghic Fever Immunotherapeutic Consortium ​.​ Topics have ranged from “Homeland Security,” “ISIS”, the Syrian Refugee ​Crisis ,” and “The New U.S./Cuba Relationship” to “The Future of Nuclear Weapons,” “Cures for Ebola: A Roadmap,” and “To Drone or Not to Drone.”

An active member of many national and international ​ advisory​ boards ​ and governing boards​ including NARAL,​ Friends of the UNFPA, the Navy SEAL Foundation,​ and Defenders of Wildlife, Stephanie understands the impact that community engagement and action can have on the issues of the day. She also understands that while Sun Valley may be a small town, the bigger the talk, the bigger the impact.