Senior, Faculty, and Student Fellows

Carol Balassa: Senior Fellow

Carol Balassa has had a diverse career in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (1980 – 2007) where she has led numerous trade negotiations on audiovisual, telecommunications, and energy services. Highlights of her negotiating career follow:

In 1980, based on extensive industry interviews and analytical research, Ms. Balassa prepared the first U.S. Government report describing the range of trade barriers confronting U.S. motion picture exports. The study established the industry’s agenda for international trade negotiations in the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations.

In the mid-1980’s, branching into telecommunications trade issues in the U.S.-Israel and U.S. Canada Free Trade Area negotiations, Ms. Balassa went on to head the U.S. telecommunications services delegation to the GATS and negotiated a Telecommunications Annex to that agreement (1987-88). The Annex established international trade rules that guaranteed U.S. companies use of telecommunications in the conduct of their business abroad.

Ms. Balassa added energy services to her portfolio in 2001.  She led the U.S. delegation on Energy Services to the World Trade Organization, where she successfully negotiated a Scheduling Guideline for Energy Services. The Scheduling Guideline is currently being used as a basis for negotiating energy services commitments in the ongoing Doha Round of trade negotiations.

Concurrent with her work on energy services in the Doha Round, Ms. Balassa also led the U.S. delegation in negotiating an agreement on sensitive audiovisual services among key trading partners that served as a basis for plurilateral negotiations of audiovisual services. During this period, Ms. Balassa also served as a member of the U.S. delegation to UNESCO, where she brought a trade perspective to development of U.S. negotiating position on the Cultural Diversity Convention.

Ms. Balassa is the author of several works relating to trade, including The Attitude of French Industry towards the Common Market, “Trade Issues in the Motion Picture Industry,” “Services in the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Negotiations,” “Liberalizing International Trade in Telecommunications Services,” and “International Cooperation to Improve Trade Rules.”

A  native of New York City, where she received her B.A. degree (magna cum laude) from Queens College, Ms. Balassa went on to take her M.A. Degree in International Relations from Yale University and her Ph.D. Degree in International Relations from The Johns Hopkins University.

Ms. Balassa is currently working on a proposal that stems from the report she wrote for the Curb Center, America’s Image Abroad: U.S. Motion Picture Exports and the UNESCO Cultural Diversity Convention.  The proposal is entitled “The Business of International Film Distribution: Pilot Proposal for a U.S.-Sponsored Capacity-Building Program.”

Jim Ed Norman: Senior Fellow

Jim Ed Norman’s career in the music industry spans the gamut from the creative to administration. He is the former president of Warner Brothers Records, Nashville, producer of acts such as Anne Murray, Kenny Rogers, Jennifer Warnes, Crystal Gayle, Hank Williams, Jr., Johnny Lee, Beth Nielsen Chapman, and Michael Martin Murphey. Norman’s work with Anne Murray yielded four Grammys and the Country Music Association’s Single and Album of the Year (“A Little Good News”).

Jim Ed Norman began his career as a musician in a band with Don Henley, who later became a member of The Eagles. Norman moved to Los Angeles and worked as a session musician (he played piano on “Take It To the Limit” and “Lyin’ Eyes” by the Eagles) and as an orchestral arranger for The Eagles (“Desperado” and “Hotel California”), Linda Ronstadt, Kim Carnes, Bob Seger, America and others.

In 1983 Norman joined Warner/Reprise as VP of A&R; the next year he became Executive VP and in 1989 was named President, a position he held until 2004. During his time at Warner Music, Norman formed a gospel label, Warner Alliance, and Warner Western for western-themed music. He signed non-country acts Take 6 and Beth Neilsen Chapman (and produced both) and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. As record company president, he oversaw the careers of Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam and Faith Hill. He continued his work as an arranger, working with Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.

A prominent member of the Nashville music business community, Norman was founding president of Leadership Music, received Time/Warner’s Andrew Heiskell Community Service Award, the Anti-Defamation League’s Johnny Cash Americanism Award, Leadership Music’s Bridge Award and was founding President of the W.O. Smith School, which provides music lessons to low income students. He was the key figure in developing a music business program at the University of Hawaii through a partnership with the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business at Belmont University.

In addition to his work as a Senior Fellow with The Curb Center, Jim Ed Norman remains active in the music industry, working with Curb Records on a variety of projects. In his work with The Curb Center, Norman brings his extensive background in both the creative and business sides of the commercial music industry, engaging Curb Scholars through seminars and discussions of thecommercial application of Art and Culture.

Paula Cleggett: Senior Fellow

Paula Cleggett administers the internship component of the Curb Scholars Program in Creative Enterprise & Public Leadership.  She developed an internship program that allows Curb Scholars to enrich their field of study, witness how public policies are shaped, and embrace the local creative community.  Through her guidance, the interns meet public leaders and entrepreneurs on the leading edge of creativity and innovation.

From 2004-2011, Cleggett managed the Curb Center’s Arts Industries Policy Forum, a seminar series for senior Congressional and Administration staff, the Forum examined public policy issues affecting the arts industry.  Prior to joining the Curb Center, Cleggett served as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s deputy associate administrator for public affairs for six years.

Cleggett’s experience with the arts covers a wide spectrum.  During her time at NASA, she worked with the arts and entertainment industries, including the IMAX Corporation in the production of large-format space movies as well as Hollywood studios in creating space-themed feature movies, such as Space Cowboys and Deep Impact.  Cleggett’s experience at NASA also included the management of NASA’s extensive fine arts program, a collection of hundreds of specially commissioned paintings.  Under her leadership, the collection was expanded to include poetry, musical compositions, and Web art.

Cleggett received a bachelor’s degree in art education from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and a master’s in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Email: paula.cleggett@vanderbilt.edu

For more:

Curb Faculty Fellows

Curb Undergraduate and Graduate Student Fellows

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