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Atlanta Sister Cities Chair, Georgianne Thomas, elected to Sister Cities International board Atlanta: August 2002:  Georgianne Thomas, chair of the Atlanta Sister Cities Commission, has been elected to serve as board member of Sister Cities International (SCI). Thomas was elected by SCI membership attending the organization’s annual conference, held recently in Toledo, Ohio. SCI is a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network, based in Washington DC, responsible for creating and strengthening partnerships between U.S. and international communities in an effort to increase global cooperation at the municipal level, to promote cultural understanding and to stimulate economic development. The organization coordinates links between 675 cities in the United States and 1,500 communities in 121 countries around the world. Since 1998 Georgianne Thomas has been chair of the Atlanta Sister Cities Commission (ASCC), which is the coordinating body for Atlanta’s official sister city relationships, operating as an arm of the City of Atlanta. Atlanta currently has 18 sister city relationships across five continents. Georgianne Thomas said, “I look forward to bringing to SCI the insights and experiences of working with Atlanta’s vigorous program of exchange activities, including educational programs, cultural exchanges, philanthropic missions, economic development and social development. Atlanta successfully hosted the SCI Annual Convention in 2001, and several of our sister city committees have been recognized and awarded by SCI for their community outreach and educational development programs.” SCI is governed by a 24-member Board of Directors, with 21 members serving for staggered three-year terms. Georgianne Thomas is the only African American woman currently serving on the SCI board.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed the "People-to-People" program at a White House conference in 1956 with the intention to involve individuals and organized groups at all levels of society in citizen diplomacy, in order that personal relationships, fostered through sister city, county and state affiliations, would lessen the chance of future world conflicts. Originally a part of the National League of Cities, Sister Cities International (SCI) became a separate, nonprofit corporation in 1967.  ENDS For more information on Sister Cities International, please visit www.sister-cities.org.