 Well, welcome, everyone. I am so excited to be here this afternoon for our 12th annual HBC foreign policy conference. My name is Denise Lauren Mante. I'm a career foreign affairs officer on the secretary's policy planning staff, and I am a alum of the best HBCU in the world, of course, Howard University. So I'm so excited to be here with you all this afternoon. We have an amazing panel right here on our main stage. I'm humbled to be the moderator. I started my career as a foreign affairs officer right from college from Howard University, and I've worked in bureaus such as the Bureau of African Affairs, Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and many others. And so I'm humbled to be here as a moderator to just chat with some of our distinguished ambassadors and foreign service officers here this afternoon. So just sit back and enjoy this session, and then we're going to go into some questions and answers as well later on this afternoon. So I encourage you all to read the bios of our distinguished panelists. They're right there on our website. If you want to take a look at their bios, but before we get started, I'll just mention everyone real quickly and give you a highlight of some of our guests here this afternoon. So first up, we have Ambassador Brazil, who is a career minister, a distinguished foreign service officer for over 40 years. She served in assignments domestically and overseas from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Japan, and many more. And we are excited to have you here Ambassador Brazil. Welcome. And thank you so much for being here with us this afternoon. And then we have next up retired senior Foreign Service Officer, Mr. Hugh Williams, who is also a career member of the senior Foreign Service and personal rank of Minister Counselor. He's held assignments both also overseas and domestic and has 38 years of distinguished service in the Department of State. And then last but not least, Ambassador Teddy Taylor, who has also served as ambassador to Papua New Guinea, the Salmon Islands, and Bhanuatu. Bhanuatu. Sorry, Bhanuatu. And he's also a member of the senior Foreign Service. And so we're excited to have you here Ambassador Taylor. And with that, we're going to zoom right into our discussion this afternoon. I'm really excited to get into some of these questions. Some of these questions are, you know, things that I was thinking as, you know, a young Foreign Affairs officer right from college. And so I'm excited to hear what our distinguished panelists have to say about some of these questions this afternoon. So first up, how do you cultivate a culture of diplomacy? I know when I was at an HBCU, I always wondered, you know, what does diplomacy mean? You know, what is the role of the State Department and diplomats? And so how do we culture, how do we cultivate a culture of diplomacy, in your opinion, Ambassador Brazil? Well, thank you. And I'm excited to be in on this panel and welcome all the HBCU participants as well as participants who are just not an HBCU user interested in the Foreign Service. I would say that on two levels, you can cultivate a culture of diplomacy. One is on the organizational level or the institutional level of the college or the organization that you're part of, and one is on a personal level. And on the personal level, I would say that you should really be an agile learner and be willing to constantly learn different things. And I guess that gets back to a point I would make, is to use this time you're at in college or starting out in your career as a way to learn about yourself. And based on that, I picked the Foreign Service because a couple of things I learned about myself is that I would I liked change, number one, and I wanted to be with an organization that encouraged constant learning. And in the Foreign Service, you're constantly learning something, a different language, a different part of the world, a different culture, and or other portfolio substantive issues. So that I think uses time to be in the cultivate the fact that you're an agile learner yourself and what you like yourself and what you're looking for in a career. Secondly, on the institutional level, I'm a graduate of Spelman College and we at Spelman, most of the students are encouraged before they graduate to have a study abroad experience. And so as an institution, Spelman is putting his money where its interest is in terms of getting students to have a global view to know that they're part of the global citizenry. And frankly, as a minority or as an African American, we know how to be a minority. We know how to to not be in the in the room, so to speak, all over the room. And to me, that gives an African American diplomat the an edge, because we have those coping skills of how you're not having to be the majority, but we know how to be a minority within a majority. And so that that to me gives an edge. So I would say, on a personal level and an institutional level, we can build that culture of diplomacy that that's needed. And diplomacy in this instance is as I'm defining it as a method of influencing the decision and behavior of foreign governments and people through dialogue, negotiation, and measures short of war or violence. And and you learn those skills in every major in college negotiation and analytical skills. So you can have any background and come into the Foreign Service and I'll stop there. Thank you for that. You know, I can't stress enough how important it is to sort of add a value to that personal angle, like you mentioned before. I know when I was a student, I did a study abroad program in Nagana in West Africa, and that truly sparked my interest in foreign affairs. And so I'd really encourage, you know, everyone watching like Ambassador Brazil mentioned to take advantage of study abroad programs. I think that that also really helps and to really find, you know, find yourself and your personal interest, which is a great, a great way to actually cultivate that culture of diplomacy. So I want to also ask a similar question to Ambassador Taylor and Mr. Hughes here. So in your opinion, Ambassador Taylor, how do you what's your vision of how to cultivate a culture of diplomacy, but also tying it to how to secure the future for Black foreign policy leaders as well? Well, I think I would echo what Ambassador Brazil mentioned earlier and I would you have to make it institutional and individual. Part of the part of the individual aspect is overcoming the fear of the unknown. We can't be afraid to try something new on many college campuses, especially at some of the HBCUs. I hear students say, well, I don't want to leave home. You need to leave home because it's a big world and you need to explore it, whether that's domestically in the United States or abroad. I think institutionally, having served as a diplomat and residence at your alma mater, Denise, it's a matter of cultivating faculty, administrators, getting thereby in into the mission of the State Department and bringing the State Department to the campuses when there's the need for a speaker. Instead of inviting the alum who is successful in life, maybe let's look to a foreign policy professional to talk about whatever that particular issue is for the day. Most campuses celebrate World AIDS Day. That's a big affair overseas for American embassies. UN Day, you could bring in a speaker to address the importance of the UN in the context of that particular university campus or how important it is for the United States to be a major player in the UN. Several other things come to mind, but I want my dear friend, Brother Hugh, to have an opportunity so I don't want to steal any of his thunder. But those are several other things. And a vision has to be, has started to top. Have to have the President signing on to it. Thank you so much. Yeah, starting at the top. That's very, very crucial. Thank you so much, Ambassador Taylor for that. Mr. Williams? Yes. Thank you so much, Denise, and welcome to all of our guests in the audience. I echo everything that Ambassador Brazile and Ambassador Taylor say. I would add, though, that HBCUs are kind of, you know, we have a culture in our community and on our campuses that are, you know, kind of to each our own. And it would be good if we could do what I call train the trainers. Okay. And when I served as a DIR, as did Ambassador Brazile and Taylor, one of my focuses was not just focusing on the students, but I used to say everyone on this campus is fair game. And so I would target even faculty members because that was the continuity, you know, and the way I would do that is to that's where there was a nexus to what Ambassador Brazile was saying, where the institution and the personal priorities kind of come together. They meet there at the faculty level. And so I would offer opportunities for faculty members to do things like go to Washington D.C., serve on promotion panels as what we call public members, so that you can drink the Kool-Aid and go back and recruit yourself. The other thing is that there are a number of programs that, for example, the Pickering and the Rangle programs, those programs are very effective because what they do is they have alumni of those programs. And I'll tell you a story, this year here at Morehouse, our best recruits that were recruited for this year's cohort were actually recruited by former Pickering and Rangle fellows who were Morehouse students. And so that's how the culture, and that's when I said, you know, my job just got easier because it's working and it's multiplying. I can be at home and sleep and out in the yard doing my daily chores when I do, and this thing is still working. That's when you know that the culture is starting to take root. Definitely. And for our audience, I'm sure you've heard of the Rangle program and Pickering program. I'd encourage you all to look into those two programs, amazing initiatives for people of color and sort of getting involved in the Foreign Service. So definitely look into those two programs. If I could add a point, Howard University is running both of those programs. And a third one we could mention is the PAIN program, is for people who are interested in going into more development work with USAID. And that is equally important. So you don't all have to be interested in the Foreign Service, you could be interested in international affairs, and find a niche for yourself in that across the board. So all three of those programs are available and use point about developing a pipeline is absolutely key to building in that, you know, securing the foundation of having Black Foreign Service officers very much. Yes, if I can add one other point, Denise. The Peace Corps, and I'm a former Peace Corps volunteer, and I hope I get a chance to talk a little bit about that, perhaps during the Q&As or some other time. They have a program that is kind of like a certificate program, that they go to the campuses and they put together kind of a continuum of courses that the schools already have and you add on, you know, membership in Model UN and debating society and international affairs or whatever. And if the students who go through that, at the end of it, they get a nice little certificate signed by someone, and I think it gives you a leg up, perhaps when you go to apply for opportunities as a Peace Corps volunteer. That's brilliant in my view. That's how you institutionalize culture in institutions, and it doesn't really cost anything because it's pretty much fabricating something that you already have in place. Definitely. And so here we've heard four great programs, the Rangel program, Pickering, Pain and Peace Corps. And if I may, Denise. Yes, Professor. Rangel has a summer enrichment program for undergraduates, meaning sophomores, juniors, you're not ready to apply for the fellowship yet. But if you are a rising junior or rising senior and you aren't necessarily sure foreign affairs or international relations is something you want to do, you can apply to the summer enrichment program, come to Washington for the summer and be introduced to the foreign affairs community. That is foreign service officers at the Department of State, the world bank, people at the world bank, all of the other international institutions that reside in Washington. And at the same time, improve some of your skill sets in economics and in writing. So that's also something for those rising seniors and rising juniors to consider. Amazing. These are all great initiatives and great programs that have all been mentioned here. I hope you all are taking notes and doing your research on some of these programs. Now my next question, for me, this is one that I think is very near and dear to my heart. I know throughout my career, I've been in a state for about 11 years now, and I know how important it is to have a mentor, to seek mentorship, to seek someone who can impact your journey, who can guide you as you move up the career ladder. And so I love to hear from all of our panelists today, name an influencer that has impacted your journey and how important it was to have that person in your life throughout your career. So I guess we can start with Ambassador Brazil first. Well, thank you. And the person I'm going to mention was not a mentor for me throughout my career, but impressed me when I first came to the state department as an employee. Her name is Barbara Watson. She was the first Black Assistant Secretary of State. And she met the few Black officers who had come into the Foreign Service. Maybe there were about five or six of us. She said things that I remembered throughout my career. One was that we should be available on a worldwide basis. So not just Africa, but Asia, Europe, South America, Eurasia, all around the world. And so that's where we should go is everywhere and not be pigeonholed into a particular geographic area. The second thing she said, which I'll have to explain, but she put it colloquially, which she says, I don't buy turkeys even on Thanksgiving. And what she meant was when you attain a position of some responsibility and you have a staff, in this instance, she was attaining an Assistant Secretary level position, you don't let other people assign staff to you. You choose your own staff. And that way you won't get any, hopefully you won't get any turkeys working for you because you've picked the people that you want. And those two things, I for some reason always remembered. So in my career, I did not serve in Africa until much later in my career. I served in Asia mostly and Latin America initially. So that I think her advice influenced me because she met with us just as I was in a group of people starting out. Awesome. Such great advice. Thank you so much, Ambassador Brazil. Ms. Williams? Thank you. Okay. Actually, one of my mentors, we're all looking at her, okay, Ambassador Brazil. And you hear the story about she doesn't hire turkeys. Well, I worked for Ambassador Brazil during my career. So I feel flattered right now about that, that I passed that muster. Before I came or actually, I had someone that intervened in my life. And that person happened to have been a Foreign Service officer. His name was Mal Whitfield. And Mal was a former, he was a Tuskegee Airman. He was an Olympic gold medalist. And in the early 60s, he came to work for the United States Information Agency and was the regional sports officer in Africa when I was a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Sierra Leone. And Mal basically, in fact, I would encourage people to Google him and look at his bio. His daughter is Frederico Whitfield on CNN, a news commentator anchor on CNN. But Mal was a talent scout. And that's the thing that I learned from him. He's always recruiting talent, looking for raw talent, in the rough, you know, rough gems. Because many of our stars on HBC youth campuses, we have to be cleaned up. And once we do clean up, we clean up pretty nicely. Well, I was one who was out in the field in a very rugged kind of state. I'll just tell you, I had, I was a lot less refined than I am now. Brother Taylor can't know some of those stories. But that person intervened. So intervention is key at the person to person level. And I maintained a relationship with him throughout because had it not been for Mal Whitfield, there would not have been Hugh Williams foreign service officer. That's, that's amazing. I love that intervention. You know, and I always say, you know, the fact that, you know, black Americans are under, you know, in the foreign service in general. And so sometimes, you know, it can be hard, you know, not, not seeing colleagues who look like you. And so having someone who can intervene, who can hold your hand and, you know, and help clean you up, I think is very, very critical and very, very important. And we certainly appreciate, you know, those who actually play that role in our lives and our journey. So thank you so much for that, Mr. Mr. Williams. And Mr. Taylor? Yes. Like, Mr. Williams, looking at one of the people who would occasionally take me to the woodshed when I was floundering professionally, I never had the privilege of working directly for Ambassador Brazil. But when I had an assignment to the Foreign Service Institute, she was director of the School of Leadership and Management. And I happened to have a small staff for the Orientation Division, which included a 100, which is the first course, all brand new foreign service officers enroll in. And there's a sister course or companion course for a foreign service specialist. And there were many times when you were sitting in the cafeteria having lunch, and you would have Ambassador Brazil join you. And she put a nugget of wisdom in your ear, or reminds you that you perhaps should have taken a different approach on something. But one of her Spellman sisters, Ambassador Ruth A. Davis, rescued me. I was a young officer on my first assignment in Washington. And she happened to encounter me during a tabletop exercise at the Foreign Service Institute. She was just there observing. I guess she liked what she saw. She saw some potential. She asked me to come to her office. And they all asked the same question. What is your vision for your career? Well, at that point, I was about 28 years old, and I was having a good time in the Foreign Service, enjoying myself. But I really hadn't thought about the stepping stones of a career. And I said, well, you know, you seem to be doing pretty well. Let's how about how do I get to a point where you are? And she says, well, first things, you have to become serious about this. And she began to lay out the steps that were needed in order to have success in the State Department. And I don't care whether you're in the Foreign Service or the Civil Service in order to be successful. There are just certain things you have to do. I, too, like Brother Hugh, I was not as refined. I came off the unemployment line at 24 when I joined. And it was my first job after undergraduate school. I don't count being a Christmas help at Sears. This was it. And as it turned out with her guidance, and then introducing me to others, I had, I succeeded. But mentoring is critical. The State Department has an affinity group called the Thursday Luncheon Group. And while it is a luncheon group, it is a mentoring session. We did not miss, as young officers, the Thursday Luncheon Group sessions because that was the one time during the course of a month that you might see another black officer that was more senior than you. Because there were so few of us in those days. And somebody would say, here, come sit down next to me for lunch. And all they're doing is sharing and providing you with guidance. The mentoring is fantastic once you get in amongst the African-American community because we recognize that we stand on people's shoulders and that the only way you are going to be successful is if I lower my shoulder and let you climb aboard. Amazing, amazing. And I love how you said, Ambassador Ruth Davis, rescue you. And I'll share in my personal journey, Ambassador Thomas Greenfield, who was just confirmed yesterday as our ambassador to the UN, pretty much rescued me and my career. And so we are very grateful for Trailblazers like you all who have paved the way for us younger officers to really be inspired and be motivated in doing the work that we find ourselves in today. So I see some questions coming in. And so keep the questions coming. We're going to turn to the questions in a bit. But before we do so, I want to ask just two more questions to our panelists. The next one is what impact have you made in foreign policy that you are most proud of to share with our audience? Ambassador Brazil. Well, thank you. But if I could add to the last conversation a minute, I think mentorship is very important. But people have begun to make a distinction called between mentorship and sponsorship. Sometimes it's the same person, but I've heard other people in the Foreign Service define sponsorship as the person who will raise your name up in meetings as someone to be looked at for a position or someone who should be promoted. And they frequently you could have the sponsor be the mentor, but not necessarily. So you want to look as you are in any career, look for those two types of people. The question you asked about policy and what mostly I'm proud of, I think I'll go to Ethiopia. My last overseas post as ambassador was to Ethiopia and Ethiopia is having tremendous problems right now. But when I arrived there were 14 million people who were on the verge of starvation because of a famine. And I'm happy to say that by changing working with USAID and with Washington and adjusting US policy, we were able to at least cut down on the numbers of deaths by providing enough food to feed that many people. And it was a whole of government experience on our end and also working with donors. So that's something I'm very proud of. Yes. Thank you so much, Ambassador Vizio. Mr. Williams? Thank you. I'm mute. Thank you. My career when I served overseas was primarily as a counselor officer. That was my primary cone. I served in several positions in Washington in domestic assignments in geographic bureaus and in functional bureaus. But when I look back, and that's the beauty about retirement, and I was sharing with Brother Taylor yesterday, is that we have a time to reflect. And that's a question that I asked myself, what is the so what factor of the year spent and what am I most proud of? And to be honest with you, it's based on people, the people that I've impacted. I have what I think are a really a small army, but some lives that I touch. You hear a lot of people say they want to make a difference. And so my policy is really wrapped in the legacy that I think that I've left in terms of shaping the minds and even the careers of some of the officers who were junior to me. Those who were all my staff and those who were up and coming or who came and sought us out. The reason I know that is because even in retirement, they still come and seek us out. Myself, Ambassador Davis, Ambassador Brazil included. And so that's a gift that keeps on giving. Policies for me, they kind of change with administrations and things and people kind of forget some of those things or it's a little relative. But the ones that I'm most the impact that I think I'm most proud of is the impact that I had on the careers and lives of those who came after me. Awesome. Thank you so much, Mr. Williams. Ambassador Taylor? I would point out that. Thank you. Now I'm unmuted. I was saying I was thinking about this yesterday after our conversation. And in fact, it would be the extension and Ambassador Brazil knows about this treaty quite well from her time in the Southwest Pacific tuna treaty. This is a treaty that allows us, the U.S. fishing fleet to fish for tuna in the last and the largest last surviving tuna stock in the world in the Southwest Pacific. And during my time in Papua New Guinea, the treaty was about to expire and negotiations were going nowhere. And in a conversation with our assistant secretary, I was able to convince him to become more personally involved in the talks to such a degree that we were able to host, have President Obama host the South Pacific presidents prior to a major meeting of Asian leaders in Honolulu. And the simple act of the president of the United States hosting these prime ministers was enough for us to secure an extension of the treaty to allow us to further the negotiations so we could bear fruit. So they could bear fruit and we could continue to fish the stock in a responsible way. And that was quite the, I thought at least at the time that was a big deal because the last thing you want is something that benefits the United States, the people, the consumer and the business to end and become a free for all thereby exhausting a limited stock of food. I definitely remember that event. So thank you so much, Ambassador Taylor. So I think we're going to turn to some of our questions here. I see a number of questions have come in. So I'll start with the first one. And it says here, in your role as ambassadors to a number of African countries, did you take into consideration the golf differences between Africans and African Americans on conversations surrounding race? So I know Ambassador Taylor and Ambassador Brazil have both served in African countries, I believe. And so Ambassador Brazil, if you want to get started with that question first, and I'll turn to Ambassador Taylor as well. Well, thank you. And I guess in the view that everything's been said, but not by everyone, I'll sort of parrot another ambassadorial colleague who made this point. I think Ambassador Hogan who's serving as ambassador in Moldova, I believe. That's correct. To some extent, and Ambassador is the face of America. And that's one reason we need more African American ambassadors. But we're the face of America, but we can tell stories. And we can tell three types of stories. We can talk about being an American. We can talk about being an African American. And we can talk about our personal stories. And I think that in terms of race coming up, that would come up in our personal stories. It would come up in our African American story, and it would come up actually in our being, talking about just being an American. So yes, I don't think it's something we should not raise and actually can give a perspective of to other countries of how different groups have had to maneuver within a society to get a bigger and larger voice or to solidify certain practices. And so I think again, talking about race gives you a way to relate to people on that people-to-people level in a way that they may not have heard. And this can, this works in every society, including in Africa or anywhere in the world, because people are curious about the face of America that you have. Anything else to add to that, Ambassador Taylor? I agree. I've always embraced the racial issues that America has in the sense of, you can't shy away from it, you can't run away from it, because if you're not authentic, your interlocutors in that country are not going to take you seriously. You use your, you tell your story, we tell the American story, and your personal story is a part of that. I like to call them teaching moments. It's an opportunity for you to shed light on what it's like to be an African American diplomat, and what it was like to be an African American growing up in whatever part of the United States you happen to grow up in. And what it's like to represent a country where when you return home, you could be potentially have a life-threatening encounter with a police officer while minding your business. I can remember in Cape Town, this was during the first set of Black Lives Matters protests, the South African students came to the consulate to protest in solidarity with the Black Lives Matters movement here in the United States. And fortunately, and this is where having Black diplomats make a difference. My security officer happened to be an African American, and my entire public diplomacy section, the two Americans were African American. I sent the security officer for obvious reasons, and I sent one of the public diplomacy officers, and it completely disarmed the students. They said, oh, wow, we can't embarrass the brother and the sister. So they presented their petition, they thanked them, and we continued and we invited them to a location later where we had, by that time, secured some funding to bring one of the Black Lives Matters founders to South Africa to talk about the Black Lives Matter movement. Awesome. And that was under U.S. government auspices, but still, it's that embracing of the issue that gives you, I think, an authentic message. May I jump in again, because I'm the only woman on the three-person panel, except for Denise, who's our moderator, and to take in the gender aspect as well. When I was an ambassador in Kenya, I would always carry a chief stick in my hand when I traveled around the country. One, because President, at the time, President Moy always had his chief stick, and I wanted to carry mine because most often, women had never seen a woman with a chief stick, and the men hadn't seen a woman with a chief stick, and it opened up some productive conversations occasionally. So their gender and race can be used useful in having conversations. Very much so, very much so. Thank you so much for that, Ambassador Taylor and Ambassador Brazil. Denise, can I jump in there and comment on observation? I remember recently we just read about the death of former Secretary of State George Shultz at age 100, and he was one of the former Secretary of State that I served under, and I think everything being said about him is true in terms of the accolades. One of the things when I was a mid-level officer that he said was it's very important that the State Department be diversified, that it looks like America. Until then, to be honest, I kind of thought it was kind of really an EEO promotion that the State Department was advocating, but until he said, he said, the reason is because when the U.S. flag hangs over our missions abroad, it tells a story about the United States and who we are as a people and the values that we represent, and it's important that that story is told by people that represent the different people groups of America. That emboldened me as a foreign service officer serving abroad to not hide my color, basically, and my identity as an African-American. I will just tell you that that had a trickle-down effect, not only on me, but on my children who were foreign service brats serving abroad with me at various posts, because they learned how to celebrate their race and their identity through their classmates and friends and things like that in a foreign service context. So that's a very important discussion to have, and it permeates the entire diplomatic mission from the Secretary of State to the ambassador all the way down to everyone who's there. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Williams. So I'll go to our next question here, and I'll open it up to any of our panelists to answer this question. So it says here, do you have advice on how to handle situations when torn between the prosperity of your people and the service of your organization? So I'll say it again, any advice on how to handle situations when torn between the prosperity of your people and the service of your organization? And I'll open it up to any of our panelists. Well, that's a hard question, because I'm not sure. I guess what popped into my mind right away was the timeline. So I don't know what the timeline is for the prosperity of the people versus the organization. So if there's a longer view of tolerating a longer time frame for prosperity to reach people, or if the organization is not reaching its objectives, which might be prosperity of the people it's serving, I'm a bit unclear about the question. But I would say that two things you maybe help reconcile is you can always talk about values and the values that you hold as an American and our values that we like to think are more universal and also empirical data. And so if you and using the data to show that there's a gap maybe in the organization's objectives to bring prosperity to people, and then you can talk about why is that that gap there because the value of the organization isn't being met. I hope I'm being clear, but I'm not sure about the question, but that's my two cents. Yep. Ambassador Taylor, if you want to jump in as well. While Ambassador was speaking, it reminded me of my graduation day, June 6, 1975, at Florida A&M. If there are any Rattlers listening, you know the name Sybil Mobly. That was the original architect of the School of Business and Industry at Florida A&M. And while I was not a business major, she was the senior class advisor in 1975. So just before we're ready to march in and we're assembling, she told us, she said, when we walk out of here today, your goal is to make the university proud, number one, make your family proud, and make America a better place for the race. And she said, you will be able to do that in a number of ways. And she didn't go into detail about it, but that always stuck with me. And it goes to Brother Williams' comment about impact. In a previous assignment in Washington, during an assignment in HR in Washington, I advocated for the establishment of the diplomat and residence position at Florida A&M University. There was no position. I was able to get empirical data that at the time showed FAMU was issuing more or conferring more bachelor's degrees than any HBCU in the country. And there were other data points that at least allowed me to have a conversation. By establishing that diplomat and residence, we began to start a small pipeline of foreign service officers. So in my way, I was helping the prosperity of my people. It may be one person at a time, but if each of us do our parts, it combines, it becomes a larger effort or the impact is much larger. You have to remind your organization of the values, but that's how I thought impacting or that's how I interpreted impacting the prosperity of my people. Hiring interns that nobody else wanted because they came from HBCUs to have the foreign service experience during the summer is impacting the prosperity of my people. Regardless of whether that young person joins the State Department, they had a lifetime experience that was impactful enough that would allow them to maybe make a better decision regarding career opportunities, having access to a different set of professionals that you would not ordinarily have access to, better informs you about the opportunities that may exist. So I think, A, you have to define prosperity and based on how you define that prosperity, you make your effort to impact it both personally and organizationally. Definitely. Thank you so much for that. I'll go to our next question here, which delves into more about the HBCU experience and how everyone started their international careers. The question here says, how did you start on the path of your international career? Were your studies at an HBCU crucial? What courses did you take? Did you have an international internship while you were in college? Depending on everyone's experience, how was the HBCU experience value added to your career now? The different courses that you took at the HBCU, how did it help throughout your career journey overall? I guess we'll start with Mr. Williams. Well, thank you. I view myself as what I call a non-traditional student when I was matriculating college and kind of the experience that Ambassador Taylor had when he met Ambassador Davis. When someone asks you the question, what do you want to be when you grow up? That's when I got the deer in the headlights look in my eye. I really didn't know the answer to that question, but that's the good thing about attending liberal arts colleges HBCU is that it's a foundational experience where you are basically learning how to read, write, and arithmetic and do arithmetic at a more glorified level. That's a good thing, but also what it helps to do, what it helped me to do, was to find myself, to identify and help build my self-confidence and expand my horizons of the kinds of things that I could do. I majored in math when I was in college at Delaware State University, and essentially I became a problem solver. I still use analytical thought processes to this day. I always said that I received my education at HBCUs because after I attended Delaware State, I went to Texas Southern University, but I received my training in the State Department. Thank you. That's awesome. Thank you so much, Ms. Williams. Ambassador Brazil, did you want to add anything? Yes, I would. I think at HBCUs, certainly at Spellman, I felt that we were exposed to the real history of America. It wasn't being whitewashed, so to speak. You developed within yourself more confidence as a black woman since Spellman is a women's college. I think that's an advantage. In terms of courses, I majored in political science, but I took courses in religion and liberal arts. I'm a big supporter of liberal arts education because I think that gives the foundation that you need to interact with people from any country around the world because you're exposed to a bit of this, a bit of that. Some Americans don't think foreigners are well educated, but they are. In particular, they are well educated about America because we have been a leader, a global leader for a long time, so they felt that they had to educate themselves about America. If you don't know enough about your own country, then I think that's telling in terms of how you represent yourself and the country. I would recommend to students to read their books now. Susan Rice has a book called Tough Love about her time in foreign affairs. Other people have books. President Obama has his book, A Promised Land, and I know that it's 700 pages, but people should read it because what he does in his writing is he tries to put you in the room as decisions are being made, either domestic or foreign policy decisions, and I think that would open the eyes of people who are reading that book. But one thing stuck with me. He went on vacation with his family to Mothas Vineyard, and in those two weeks, he felt he was getting refreshed and he was getting his energy back, and his ability then increased to begin to think about the different decisions that he would be confronted as president. And so I'll just end by quoting Roz Brewer, who is our new CEO of Walgreens, a Spelman graduate, and happens to be head of the Board of Trustees at Spelman. But she has said, and I hope people, students listen, that she always tries to act out of, to take action out of energy and not out of anxiety. And I think that's something I've been pondering because I think it's very important. President Obama was re-energizing himself on his vacation so he could take action out of energy, not out of anxiety. And the only way to do that is to get educated, not to have anxiety, but to educate yourself about the issue that you're confronting and do the best you can. That's very good. Thank you so much for that. Ambassador Taylor, anything to add to that? I would say confidence and resilience. Because an HBCU is a safe space, and you're not a member of an affinity group, you have the ability to explore, to make mistakes, and not have them be lifelong, have the consequences necessarily be lifelong. We had a professor at Florida A&M, God bless him, Dr. William H. Howard. He taught the six courses on international relations in the political science department, which was my major. I took all six. Dr. Howard taught us the foundations of the international system in addition to sharing his travels with us. So he introduced us to the world, because most of us had never traveled outside of the United States, nor could we afford to travel outside of the United States. But that confidence to know that you can do it, and the resilience to overcome the challenges that you're going to face, regardless of what career you may choose. Yes. Thank you so much. Confidence is very, very important. And I know Ambassador Brazil mentioned a number of reading books that you recommend to our audience. There's a few questions here about some sources that you all recommend for our students to read, whether it's books or how to get news information. What would be your best recommendations for books and sources of current issues? I'll start with Mr. Williams. Well, actually, I taught a course at Morehouse. And one of my required readings, actually, that I had for my students, actually, there were three. One is a book entitled Inside U.S. Embassy for students who are contemplating considering careers in international affairs with the State Department. That's a good one. The other one is Maria Carter. What's Maria's name? Pinto, is it? Yes, Pinto. And it's called Careers in International Affairs. That's a good read. It's a good desktop. It's kind of like a manual that is a lot more cross-cutting of the international agencies. Ambassador Brazil mentioned President Obama's book, but one of the mandatory readings that I gave my students was Diplomat for a Warrior for Peace. Ambassador Perkins recently deceased autobiography. It's a very good read, and I recommend that one as well. Thank you. Thank you so much. Ambassador Taylor, any recommendations? The editorial pages of the major newspapers usually will have editorials written by foreign policy pundits or reporters who cover foreign affairs on various foreign affairs issues. And then there are the trade journals, foreign policy, foreign affairs, the economist, which is of British origin, but still it covers international economic issues, international politics. And considering the technical expertise of this audience, I'm sure you will find other opportunities to find our readings on foreign affairs, international relations, but certainly the books mentioned by Brother Williams and Ambassador Brazil are great starting points. But the newspapers still exist. And the editorial page for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, as a diplomat, you read those daily because they could be covering issues that impacted the work that you were doing at that particular time. Yes, thank you so much. I know Ambassador Brazil gave us two books already. Anything else you like to add to that list? Well, I would say anything. There are numerous books, but anything on Ralph Bunch, because I think he was a colossus of the 20th century in terms of what he did diplomatically. And so I recommend that. And Bill Burns' book, The Back Channel, he's just had his hearing to be head of CIA. And he's written an interesting book. So there are lots of books. Well, thank you for that. I think we're all out of time. Yes, and Ambassador Taylor will take your suggestion. You're on mute. The Wise Men. It's probably 15 years old, but it talks about the people who developed post-war Europe and the Marshall Plan. And those men, unfortunately, all became people in the State Department who influenced U.S. foreign policy for generations. Yes, yes, yes, the Marshall Plan. Definitely a great recommendation from Ambassador Taylor. I think we're all out of time here, but thank you all so much to our amazing panelists. Thank you to our audience for joining. I truly enjoyed today's discussion. I know you all have heard remarks from the Vice President, our Secretary, and many others. And so hope you all enjoyed the conference. Before we close, any parting words from our panelists before we end here? Come join the Foreign Service. We need you. Thank you. As you look at the State Department, there are a number of specialties that may pique your interest. For example, for those people who are into information management, there's a place for you in the State Department. For those of you that want to be federal law enforcement, there's a place for you in the State Department. Engineers, there is a place for you in the State Department to do the perform the duties of engineering. So the scientists, yes, so think about, don't see it as strictly an institution of liberal arts majors. It's far more than that. So do take the time and research the various career options that are available to you. But mainly, don't be afraid of the State Department. Living abroad is fantastic. As Ambassador Ruth Davis said, sure to be in a multi-millionaire, there is nothing else I'd rather do in the world than have been a Foreign Service officer. Awesome. Mr. Williams, any parting? I say amen to that. Well, amen right back. Thank you all so much. We had an amazing, amazing discussion here on our main stage. Congressman, the field will be showing up next. And so that will close out the program for today. But thank you all so much to our audience and both to our panelists. Thank you all so much and have an amazing day. Good afternoon and thank you, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Chulit for all of your hard work and that kind introduction. It is indeed a privilege to be here to conclude another remarkable historically Black colleges and universities foreign policy conference. And I share the State Department's deep appreciation to all of you for your participation today. As you learn about the work of the State Department, and I hope you are encouraged to think about how you too can become leaders in foreign affairs. Now, I'm a proud HBCU alum myself, having graduated from Howard University School of Law and now serving as the first African American chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. My time at Howard is the foundation of so much of what I've done throughout my career. I've walked in the same hallways as Charlotte E. Ray and Thurgood Marshall and so many other notable Howard icons and Black civil rights leaders, which spurred my desire to pursue a career that would allow me to give back to my community. It's what inspired me to become an attorney, then an assistant district attorney, an assemblyman in Queens County, and now a member of the United States Congress. And as a member of Congress, it has been my priority to create opportunities for those who come from communities like mine to explore careers in foreign service. After all, foreign service is public service. Our foreign service officers are representing America abroad. And it's important that those public service, our diplomats, look like the America they represent. When we have diversity and national security related fields, our nation is better for it. Your opinions go a long way. Your thoughts are important. So I hope you gain a greater understanding of diplomacy and its value worldwide. This opportunity is unique and very important. I want to thank Secretary Blinken and the Senior State Department officials for acknowledging the importance of historically Black colleges and universities and all the talent that they nurture. My good friend who's a graduate of Howard University and now the Vice President of these United States of America, Kamala Harris, serves an example of those contributions to our great nation. It is important that Americans around the country understand why U.S. foreign policy matters. Now you heard from diplomats who are committed to tackling the global challenges from climate change, environmental policy, to the utilization of technology and data to support our efforts abroad. Clearly, our world is more interconnected than it's ever been and the global challenges we face require global solutions. And democracy is at the heart of it. So after you leave the conference today, we ask you to keep conversations going at your college or university and in your communities and your homes. Talk to your brothers and your sisters, your nieces and your nephews and your friends. I have no doubt that our future ambassador is viewing this live stream right now. And I challenge you to take today's discussions, suggestions, and testimonies to fuel your goals. Whether you plan to apply to Howard University's Rangel Fellowship or the Donald Payne International Development Fellowship or the Pinkering Fellowship or take the Foreign Service Exam, this opportunity at the HBCU Foreign Policy Conference was meant to build your leadership to become the future diplomat of tomorrow. So thank you for your time and we hope to see you for day two of the HBCU Foreign Policy Conference. Enjoy.