 Good afternoon. Thank you everyone, especially Candice and the entire HBCU foreign policy conference team for convening this fantastic two-day program. Thank you to all the students for participating today. By showing up here and logging on, it demonstrates that you care about the wide range of issues that impact our communities and recognize that how these, how those challenges extend to the entire world. So I'm excited to moderate today's panel on U.S. diplomacy in international organizations and I'm thrilled to welcome four by colleagues in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs who are implementing U.S. policy at the UN and other multi multilateral organizations every day. With us on today's panel we have some true rock star diplomats who have served on the front lines in various places across the globe as part of the Foreign Service in their careers. We have today Ms. Callie Jones, Chief of Staff to the U.S. Ambassador to the UN based in New York City. We have Ms. Desiree Cormier-Smith, Senior Advisor in I.O. We also have Dr. Megan Johnson, Public Diplomacy Officer in the I.O. Bureau and I hope we'll have Michael Hayes, who is a special assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to the UN in New York City as well with us today. Maybe join us in a few minutes. My name is Ty McKeever and I'm a public engagement off in public engagement and outreach officer at the U.S. Mission in New York City. We've a lot of ground to cover in the next 45 minutes. So let me start by saying multilateral diplomacy is an extremely challenging and important area of foreign policy. What Americans think of the State Department, they usually think first of U.S. embassies where diplomats advance the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and a particular country, but multilateral diplomacy refers to many countries coming together to discuss, debate, and take action on matters of shared concern. Of course, the world's most prominent venue for multilateral diplomacy is the UN, headquartered in New York City, where U.S. Ambassador and permanent representative to the UN, Linda Thomas Greenfield, is headquartered and conducts U.S. policy with 193 member states. But the U.S. also has missions to the UN in Geneva, Vienna, Rome, Montereyal, and Nairobi, where U.S. diplomats work on issues as diverse as food security, human rights, space policy, and the environment and among many others. Multilateral diplomacy is more important than ever before, as it will take all countries coming together around the diplomatic table to address the global challenges of today, including COVID-19, the climate crisis, and in support of the three pillars of the UN, peace and security, development, and human rights. Now I'd like to introduce our panelists who have so kindly joined us today. I will save you the time of reading through their bios because you have them available on your website. But I'll ask each of our panelists to spend a few minutes sharing some of their career highlights before we get into this important conversation. I'll be sure to leave some time at the end for some questions, but feel free to drop them in the chat function or see them until we're done with our first round, Robin. With that, let me turn it over to Kali, two staff to kick us off. Kali, can you share with us your current role and responsibilities and how you came into your career in the Foreign Service? And to break the ice a little bit, can you share with us who or what motivated you to pursue a career in foreign policy? Thanks, Ty. And hello, everyone. Happy to be here. And to talk a little bit about my current role, the chief of staff is the Jack of all trades, the master of none. I know where to get information from experts. And I really do that on behalf of the United States representative to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield. So in my capacity as her chief of staff, it is really about using her time and prioritizing the Biden Harris administration pushes and that comes to COVID climate change, the importance of multilateralism and demonstrating that diplomacy is bad. So whether we're doing any of those issues, it's really about how she shows up as a cabinet official doing those things. And I guess how I got here is I'll blame that on my mom or give her credit, whichever one you want to say. My mom is a physician and has spent her entire career serving others and going into underserved communities. And so public service as a kid was always extraordinarily important to me. And I have combined public service with a love of culture and travel. And so that is what brought me to the foreign service. That's great. Thank you, Kelly. And I'll just turn it over to Desiree to answer the same questions a little bit about your career, how you got here, what you're doing and who and what motivated you to pursue a career in foreign policy? Thanks, Desiree. Sure. Thanks for having me. It's such an honor to be here with you all. And I look forward to the day we can do this again in person so I can see all of your faces. So I am currently the senior advisor in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs. And I actually came back to the department after being out for several years. So I began my career as a foreign service officer straight out of graduate school. And I'll get to your second question in a little bit. And then I left the Foreign Service after about six years due to family issues. My dad got really sick and I just wanted to be closer to home. So I left the Foreign Service at the end of 2015 to join the private sector. And because I was always sort of infatuated, if you will, with the private sector, they just seem to be more efficient. They seem to have all this money and resources. And that in many ways gave them leverage in insights that the US government and influence that maybe the US government didn't have in some respects. And so I used that opportunity to really sort of understand how the private sector worked. I worked for about five years consulting with major corporations and major foundations that were interested in investing in and expanding in southern and East Africa specifically. And then I left after four and a half years to join Open Society Foundations because I really wanted to kind of get closer to public service, but also wanted to see how I could have an impact doing advocacy work and working with civil society. And I was really enjoying that work. I was a senior policy advisor. So really, I was the one on the outside pushing the US government to do more on specific human rights issues in Africa, Europe and Eurasia. And after President Biden won the election, I then had the chance to come back to the State Department as a political appointee. And so that's where that's what I'm doing now. In this role, I get to work with my all my fantastic colleagues in IO and all of our missions to the UN to advance racial justice and to advance equity for members of all marginalized and vulnerable groups. So that includes religious minorities, LGBTQI plus persons, persons with disabilities, indigenous persons in women and girls and all their diversity. And how I found myself in the Foreign Service is a great question. It was honestly a little bit by accident. I learned about the Pickering Fellowship when I was an undergrad. And I had no idea what the State Department was or what a Foreign Service officer was. But I had a good friend who had just gotten the fellowship. And we were in a study group together in a class. And he asked what I was planning to do after I graduated and I told him, I think I want to do something in public service. Think I want to do something maybe internationally focused. But I didn't know I didn't know what that meant because I didn't know any diplomats growing up. I grew up in Inglewood, California. Now everyone knows our Inglewood is thanks to the Super Bowl. But you know, we, you know, we didn't have anyone to look up to that worked in foreign policy that just wasn't a part of my reality. So but I applied to the Pickering Fellowship because it sounded really interesting to have a career as a diplomat, but also because they would pay the State Department would pay for the rest of my undergraduate career and for me to go to grad school and I would be guaranteed to have a job afterwards. So as a student who was reliant on financial aid and part-time jobs, that really was the biggest hook for me. But I'm very, very glad that I happened to hear about the Pickering Fellowship because it put me on this trajectory and I haven't looked back. So thank you. And it's really great to have you back Desiree. Megan, I'll turn it over to you to ask to answer the same questions. Kind of who and what you're doing. And who and what motivated you to get in career in foreign service. Thanks. Thanks, Ty. I'm originally from Omaha, Nebraska. And you know, as Desiree was saying, grew up not knowing any diplomats, not knowing foreign service, not paying attention to international affairs very much. My background is in education. After undergrad, I went on and worked with college students and I was a college administrator. So anytime I get to speak to college students, I get really excited because it's such a fun and dynamic group of people who have so much hope and there's so much promise there. I actually went and then somehow found myself in Tanzania doing my dissertation research on women's access to education, working with girls and understanding how they overcame certain barriers, first generation women to get into university and what that looked like. And it was there that I started interacting with quite a few folks from the embassy in different capacities and understanding, oh, there's a career in this, there's an opportunity to live and work overseas and to represent the United States in a more formal way, because as many of us know, when you travel overseas, you represent the United States, no matter what, just in casual conversations with people. But then I realized that there was a way that maybe I could, you know, turn that turn that into a passion and make a career out of it. I'm currently in the International Organizations Bureau as well. I'm a public affairs officer, which means I spend a lot of time supporting our missions that are doing outreach. So as Ty mentioned at the top, we have headquarters in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Rome. And so I support our colleagues there as they do a variety of work, both on the committees that they serve on, and as they put together resolutions, as well as with some of their external efforts that they do outside of the embassy to let others know what we're doing at the United Nations. So that's a little bit about my background. Thanks, Ty. That's great. Thanks, Megan. And over to you, Michael, I'm asking folks to just share with us some of their career highlights, and then more specifically talking about who and what motivated you to join the Foreign Service. Thanks. Sure. Thank you so much for having me. And I appreciate all of my colleagues sharing kind of their back story. For me, it was a story of the Pauls. I went to Clark Atlanta University. And once I arrived there, about a semester or two when I went to an advisor, his name was Dr. Paul Brown. And he said to me, you know, have you thought about studying abroad? And, you know, I had never been overseas. I didn't really have much of an idea about travel outside of California, where I'm from in the Bay Area. And down there in Atlanta, he set up a program where I was able to travel abroad for the first time. And honestly, I caught the bug. I landed in Costa Rica in San Jose, and I walked up to somebody who looked like they were from Oakland. And I said, Hey, what's going on? And he spoke total Spanish. And I said, Oh my goodness, the majority of the people on earth are people of color, just like me. And from there, I got the bug. By the time I graduated, I had been to like 23 or 24 countries. And around my senior year, I went to this seminar for a diplomat in residence. So for those of you who don't know, you may have a diplomat in residence. You definitely will have one on this call, but you may have one close to your campus that spoke to me and said, you know, I've I've been to the pyramids of Egypt. I've been to Mount Kilimanjaro, and I've done it all serving my country at the same time. And that was Paul Rowe. And from there, I said, Sir, what is it that you do? And he said, you know, I worked at the State Department as a United States diplomat. And and from there, that's kind of been my that's been my pursuit. I've been working at it for some time now. I've worked in India and Namibia and Mexico, and then in Washington, DC. Now I'm up here in DC, serving as a staff assistant to the US ambassador, Linda Thomas Greenfield. And it's been amazing really just supporting her across all verticals in terms of operations policy and admin and working with amazing individuals, not only at the here at the mission, and the ones that she interacts with her other diplomats, but also those in Washington, DC at the White House and in the cabinet. So it's been a great experience and happy to answer any questions and share a bit more later. No, that's great, Michael, that appreciate it. Kelly, let's let's start with you just to set the tone and kind of do some level setting at the top here. You know, as President Biden and Secretary Blinken and Ambassador Thomas Greenfield have all been heard to emphatically say, you know, multilateralism is back, diplomacy is back, and that the US is committed to leading not by the example of our power, but the power of our example. And so, you know, can you just demystify the rank of Ambassador Thomas Greenfield's cabinet level position and why restoring it to that title is so important? And then second to that is, you know, what does seeing Ambassador Thomas Greenfield at the UN on the global stage signify for you? I mean, what does that, you know, you know, represent in terms of visibility? All right, Ty, and apologies, everyone, as much as I try and going to be a ray of light today. So hopefully that means good things for you all. So let me start with multilateralism is back and why having the ambassador at the cabinet level is so important. So a little history here. Eisenhower was the first president to make the US representative to the UN a cabinet of I'm sorry, yes, a cabinet official. And part of the reason he did that is because he wanted his representative to have a direct link and access to him. And so it demonstrated the importance he saw in foreign policy. And while this particular position has gone from being senior leadership in the Department of State to being part of the president's cabinet, President Biden was clear that he wanted to elevate multilateral organizations and put the United States in the forefront when it came to global leadership. So when he did that and selected Ambassador Thomas Greenfield, he also made her a cabinet official. So she is one of his advisors that sits on the cabinet out of 24 others. And it allows her to have direct access to President Biden when it comes to his national security and what the United States is doing in terms of multilateralism and its diplomacy to demonstrate diplomacy is back. And then on your second question, I'm going to go a little bit different. I'm going to talk a little bit about the accomplishments that she has done representing the United States and really what it means for America. But I'd like to pivot a little bit and tell you what it also means to me. She is an African American woman from Louisiana. I am also a African American woman from Louisiana. And so not only is it important to have a cabinet that looks like America when I see her, I can see where we are going in the United States and it is a point of pride. So working for her and seeing her do the things that I have read about in history books is also remarkable. But talking a little bit about what the U.S. mission under her leadership has done, the first thing I'd like to say is that we have really focused as in this administration on racial equity. And one of the things we did was support the people's forum, the forum for the people of African descent, which was very important so that people knew that we were interested in eliminating discrimination in all its forms across the globe and turning a lens on ourselves here in the United States. I think it's also important to say that we have elected Americans in high positions at the United Nations. We've won six out of our seven campaigns. So that was a particular focus of us. We have also rejoined the Human Rights Council because humanitarian issues is likewise important. And I think for Ambassador Thomas Greenfield, it was particularly important to turn focus on issues that had been lost, having the world focused on Ethiopia, looking at humanitarian aid to Syria, Yemen, Burma. I mean, we could go on, but it was particularly important to know that to highlight of, I guess, food being used as a weapon of war. So all of those things are in our resolutions, rejoining the Paris Agreement focused on climate change. The list is long in just 365 days. And so I think those are all of the things that demonstrate that not only is the ambassador doing real good and hard work, but the Biden administration is delivering on the things that it would promise. No, that's great, Kelly. I really appreciate hearing all of the good things, important work that's being done. And I want to pivot to, you know, the focus on racial justice here, and I want to give Desiree an opportunity to kind of speak to where your focus is and where the advocacy, you know, approach is coming from your purview and what you're doing on that front. Yeah, thanks. Well, Kelly stole some of my thunder. Of course, I have to highlight. When we talk about our efforts to advance racial justice and equity, a key piece of that, but not the only piece is our support for the establishment of the permanent form on people of African descent. This is a historic body. This, for the first time, is a recognition that people of African descent globally face unique challenges and unique barriers because of the long legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism. And efforts thus far have not yielded the kinds of results that we'd hoped for. So by establishing this body to sort of coordinate all of the United Nations efforts and to sort of make sure that they're all going in the same direction to address some of these challenges, whether it be on COVID-19, on economic inequality, on health disparities, on climate change, which we all know all of these crises have a disproportionate impact on black communities here in the United States, but also globally. So expressing strong support for that, the creation of that form was a top priority and incredibly proud that we did that. We took it a step further and once the form was established, you know, the form is 10 independent experts. We wanted to make sure that we showed our commitment to making sure that the independent experts on this form would be effective, incredible people. This was not just going to be a sort of, you know, formality where someone can just add to their resume. So we, I'm very, very proud that we nominated Howard Law Professor Justin, Justin Hansford. Sorry, I was going to say Thurgood because he works for the Thurgood Marshall Center. Justin Hansford, who was overwhelmingly elected to the form. So we're thrilled not only to have someone with Professor Hansford's background and as an academic, but also as a civil rights scholar and an activist, but also to have one of our nation's HBCUs represented on the global stage like this is incredibly special and something that, you know, means a lot to those of us on this call and to those of us who pushed for us to make this happen. So we're really thrilled about the permanent form, but again that's not the only thing we're doing. We also, as Kelly mentioned, we wanted to restore American leadership to UN human rights bodies. We were absent from them for several years and one of those bodies was the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. One of the first things I was proud to do when I joined the administration was to, we had to reconvince her, was to identify an appropriate nominee who was Professor Game and Dougal of Fordham University to run for the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and that was not an easy task because for the last couple years not only were we absent from these bodies, but we weren't doing great here at home and not that we, you know, were ever been perfect, but there was a renewed, you know, in addition to the sort of renewed racial reckoning following the murder of George Floyd, there was also, we've also seen this renewed backlash against, you know, the acknowledgement and the importance of teaching accurate history in our country. So we had to convince Professor McDougal that this administration was serious about this and we were returning to this, we wanted to return her to this body because we were serious about this and we were also doing the work here at home. I'm very proud to say that Professor McDougal was again successfully elected. There was also following the horrific murder of George Floyd in June 2020, there was a resolution led by the Africa Group that compelled the Office of the Human High Commissioner on Human Rights to look at systemic racism in policing globally and that culminated in a report that she released this last summer, summer 2021. That resulted in another resolution that created a new mechanism, a global mechanism comprised of three independent experts to study systemic racism specifically in law enforcement globally. We were proud to have our secretary commit our support to cooperating with this mechanism because we understand that the credibility begins at home. While systemic racism and police brutality against black people is not unique to America, it is a problem here. And so we have to address our problem openly, transparently and with humility in order to be a credible leader for human rights globally. It has to start here at home. So those are just a few things that we're doing to advance racial justice multilaterally. Happy to take any other questions, but I also want to hear from my other fantastic panelists. Thanks. That's great, Desiree. Thanks. And it kind of leaves some space for for Megan here. I want to hear more about, you know, your role as a public diplomacy officer. You know, part of your job is to help explain why U.S. Diplomacy at the UN matters. And can you talk a little bit about U.S., you know, engagement in the international system and how that benefits everyday Americans beyond just the racial justice, even though those are critical to our communities, but there's a lot more work on other issues as well. Thanks, I appreciate that question. You know, I think as we've heard both Callie and Desiree say already U.S. engagement is a very big topic right now. And hopefully you're hearing more about it in the media. Hopefully we're doing our jobs and trying to get the word out in different ways than we have recently. And, you know, I think it's important the question you asked that we don't often talk about what does the American get out of our engagement? Why is this important for the U.S. to be engaged at the UN in international organizations? And how does it benefit our citizens? So, you know, I could talk about reform efforts and, you know, governing rules, bodies and general governing behavior, which are important, but I'd like to get a little bit more specific than that. You know, in general our engagement at the UN advances our health and our safety and helps our prosperity and advances freedom as well as helps protect our environment. And so I'm going to give you just a few examples here. I'm not sure how many people have heard of IKO, the ICAO is what is how that's spelled out the acronym the International Civil Aviation Organization. So that body sets standards for international flights around the world. It engages in, you know, make sure that there are standards and that we are safe when we fly. We're also engaged in the ITU, the International Telecommunications Organization, which allows us to use our cell phones, which I'm sure several of us are on right now. And it allows us to navigate by GPS and to use the internet freely and securely. And we've recently re-engaged with the Human Rights Council, which helps protect Americans abroad from torture and inhumane treatment, arbitrary arrest or delayed trial, as well as forced labor, which says nothing of other countries atrocities that are happening elsewhere, but, you know, what that does to protect Americans and, you know, deserate it on this real briefly, but as well as our involvement in the UN environmental program that's helped preserve the ozone layer through international agreements in the past. It gives us access to scientific data on climate change so that Americans can better understand and mitigate climate risks, which, you know, includes top, or includes impact of rising sea levels on coastal areas, as well as droughts and other extreme weather events that we know are taking place. So those are just a few examples of how we're involved in international organizations and why it matters. That's great, Megan. Thank you so much. Michael, I want to just draw down a little bit more and get to the importance of the people-to-people diplomacy here. Obviously, you know, we focused, we put a high priority on that. And in order to engage on important issues at the UN, but it's been difficult, right? We've gone through COVID and most of our engagements have been virtual. So I want to hear more about, you know, any skills that you've learned, either from your experience, you know, at the UN or in school or internships that have helped you prepare in ways to assist the ambassador navigate these logistical and impact strategic challenges. Yeah, sure. Thanks, Ty. I would say this. Look, if there are two ways that we've been able to kind of navigate this very unique and once in a lifetime, once in a whole bunch of generations type of pandemic, it's the first is technology, right? So the ambassador says often, you know, a lot of the challenges and difficulties that she's had to go through. It really just helped her build what she calls her adversity muscles. So a lot of you on this call, you've had to really navigate really difficult situations. So give yourself grace first, first off, but for us, from this side from USUN, it's been technology. It's been WhatsApp. It's been Zoom. It's been text message. It's been FaceTime and really figuring out how to adapt and navigate that. And I think that that, although it has been inconvenient and we all love to be in person, the skills that you're learning right now, the skills that you've had to learn to even go to class and to be able to do internships and everything like that, those things are here to stay. As we move our foreign policy forward, we're going to continue to use technology in ways that we never thought we would. We're using it at the highest levels from the president, the secretary of state, and all the cabinet. Everyone's using Zoom. So being able to kind of have a specialty, understanding these technologies intimately is going to put you far ahead. So that's what we're doing. And me and my role in that is really helping to navigate and keep up with that, whether it be these groups or whether it be one-on-one chats. The second is, I would say, having a strong COVID posture. That's something that we take very seriously in the State Department up here in New York. And it's really being really creative about how we're able to interact with people. Anyone who knows the ambassador and you'll have a chance to hear from her shortly, if you're talking about people-to-people, if you're talking about public affairs, if you're talking about seeing someone in the hallway and they'll sit there and talk to you for five minutes, that's her. And that's how she's been able to be successful over these past few decades. It's because when you're speaking to her, she really cares about listening and she hears. And those relationships are really important to diplomacy. So being able to be creative about doing that, whether it be one-on-one meetings, whether it be small groups, making sure that everyone that we're coming in contact with, they know, hey, keep your mask on, hey, wash your hands. All those things that you kind of see on the PSAs, we take them very seriously and those have been the things that have helped us navigate these different areas. I've been fortunate enough to be in this role, to be a part of that apparatus charged with being able to intersect and engage with individuals that are engaging with the ambassador and being able to kind of set those building blocks and make sure that within a COVID, a strong COVID posture and whether it be technology or in person, we're making sure that we're meeting with people that are informing our policy, we're able to get our message across and we're able to have substantive conversations that kind of help us push Biden, President Biden's administration policies forward. Oh, that's great. Just to follow up on that, what some folks may not know or they've heard about is the ambassador is very known for her gumbo diplomacy. And so I wonder if you can just speak to a little bit and how that's impacted her success as an ambassador. Yeah, I mean, listen, I can't speak for the ambassador. I'm sure she'll explain at some point how that's helped her be successful, but I can just say what I've seen. In the way that I understand her gumbo diplomacy, as we all know, gumbo, you're putting a whole bunch of ingredients in a pot. And she does that when we're engaging with China, whether there may be areas where we agree with them and there may be areas that we don't agree with them, but she's still engaging. She wants to sit at the table. She'll sit at the table with anyone to have these conversations about how to push policies forward, but even step back from that to be able to create those relationships because, hey, we may not agree on Tuesday, but next Tuesday, there's something else that we need to address in kind of the complex issues that come up in foreign policy. So just having that relationship, just have you have the lauries with the chicken and the shrimp and the crawfish, you know, all of it put in in one pot, everyone coming from different perspectives and looking different, but it's coming out to be something that's really good. And I think that's something that I've seen her do fairly successfully. Appreciate it. Thank you. And Megan, let's talk about the people-to-people diplomacy a little bit more. I think from your perspective, I'd be interested in hearing about U.S. engagement at the UN and how critically important it is to make sure that diplomatic table, so to speak, involves underrepresented voices and folks from marginalized groups, a lot of the folks that Desiree's working with. But let's talk about how that pipeline to the UN system for careers is available to the folks that aren't or haven't heard or don't work around diplomats every day. What does that look like? Thanks, Ty. I, it's a great question. I, as a Foreign Service Officer, naturally I'd rather recruit people to come work with me at the State Department and to join our ranks. But I see there is quite a bit on that agenda to on that topic tomorrow and you asked me about the UN. So I'll make a plug for working at the UN. One of the, one of the State Department's priorities right now is actually to get more Americans into the United Nations. And so again, we know that you are out there studying a wide array of topics and you're gaining really in-depth knowledge. And we know that you all will be the subject matter experts in the future and in the coming years on these topics. And we actually right now have congressional supports to help us recruit folks to work at the United Nations, which is a really big deal and it's fantastic. So before I go to the, the two most common ways for folks at this level, to get in the UN, I'm going to put in a plug and I'm sorry, I can't drop into the chat, but IOcareers.state.gov is a website that some of our teammates have stood up to kind of catalog all of the opportunities for folks to look at careers at the United Nations. Again, that's IOcareers.state.gov. I'm not sure if someone can pop that in there. But two of the most common ways for folks to join the UN are normal pathways, right? So internships. Internships are huge and then there's the Young Professionals Program and so I'll chat a little bit about both of those. So there are a variety of internships available for at the UN for various UN organizations. So I mentioned a couple of UN organizations before, but there's a huge variety of United Nations organizations that cover any number of topics and those are really going to provide the firsthand experience for working at the UN while someone's pursuing an undergrad or a Masters or a PhD. Internships generally last for two to six months and they either and they start within a year of graduation. So those folks who are pursuing bachelor's degree do need to be in their final year of studies. They're released on a rolling basis, which is really good because they're constantly ongoing and they're often located in really cool places around the world. The second most common way is through YPP, the Young Professionals Program. So YPP requires an entrance exam. So it's a little bit different. There's an entrance exam in specific subject areas and the application process is actually open right now through February 27th. So there's an opportunity to take a look at that, to take a look at that for the coming year. YPP is restricted to specific subject areas. There's social fairs, social policy and development and statistics and data science. I would not be doing statistics and data science, but there, I know there's a lot of people again that have that skill set and then there's the other side which is more the social fair, social policy. So kind of both sides of the brain as it were as folks think and have their subject areas. So there's again, there's some additional information you can find at careers.un.org and again, apologies that I'm not popping that into the chat. There's also the junior professional program which is a really good way to start a long-term career at the United Nations. It's a highly competitive process. They do require a master's degree in three years of experience. So I know quite a few folks on the call are undergrad so just smile that in the back of your head there. Should you want to be pursuing a master's degree? There are opportunities for you down the road and that's a great program. Generally speaking, we know that the UN is better when we have more Americans in it. We know that Americans at the United Nations advocate for our shared values and that's what we're really interested in in these international organizations. I was on a panel an internal State Department panel that Desiree put together earlier on today and we heard speakers say we need more Americans at the UN but we need more Black Americans at the UN. We need more people who are representing certain values that are having certain conversations that are pushing agendas in ways that haven't that we haven't been doing in the past. So while I hope that you'll consider opportunities at the State Department, there are quite a few opportunities at the UN as well. Hopefully they answered your question, Ty. Oh that was great and also just brings up a question I want to ask Desiree about your return to public service. Obviously there's a through line here where we're encouraging students and those interested in foreign policy to join the ranks in file of the government whether it's domestic or the UN IOs. But let's talk about the importance and what public service means to you and why it's important to get involved during after college and your studies. Yeah, I saw a quote from someone and I can't remember who to attribute it to but I thought it was so brilliant. They said those closest to the bank to the pain should be closest to the power. And for me that really resonates. It's going to be you know when you have people who have experienced poor quality education low quality roads you know some of the real challenges that too many of our communities face when you have us at the table making policy decisions about these very issues we come at it from a perspective of empathy but also it's very personal. We know that this is beyond a sort of educational exercise right and it's beyond a sort of nice to do. It really impacts people's lives in very real ways. And for me that's really why I was drawn to public service while I you know wanted some experience in the private sector and in civil society at the end of the day it really is powerful being at the table and having people with different backgrounds that really represent the broad diversity and beauty of our country because no one American has the same experience right and that's why it's so critical that we have a foreign service that we have a cadre representing us at the at the United Nations that is truly reflective of our country's unique diversity because that really can lead to greater outcomes it could lead to more humane outcomes it could lead to more sustainable outcomes. So that's really why I was drawn back to public service and you know I think there are lots of ways to really be involved in foreign policy but if you want to help contribute to the actual development of policy and the implementation of that policy you really have to be in government because from the outside you can shout as loud as you want to about specific things and push as hard as you want to but at the end of the day it's the people at the table making those decisions and so that's why it is so critical that we have people at the table who really care about the people that these decisions will impact. That's super helpful insightful thank you just right I think I want to talk a little more with you Callie about your career in public service and you know as we as you are at the center of power closest to the to the fire if you will thinking about how you make decisions as a team of staff to include or to be as inclusive as you can be and as the ambassador is making decisions how does that what does that process look like for you? I think some of those skills might be helpful to the students listening about the way you prioritize different aspects that you are in the elements that you're considering while making or helping recommend something for the ambassador to make a decision on what does it look like? So Ty I think when one is making a decision and the most important thing is to have different perspective if you're hearing the same advice it means that you don't have people in the room who think differently and this is why it's so critically important for both the department of state and the united nations to have people from different backgrounds different countries different ways of thinking will come to the table when you have that so when I talk about I want to make sure that the ambassador has all the information she needs to make a decision it's also about making sure that dissenting voices are heard because that's when you make the best decisions when you have all those elements so the one thing that I could say is that we have a reign you know it starts with how you recruit people because you want to ensure that you have people from who think differently who come at an issue differently who have different expertise they come from both the private sector the non-governmental sector all of those things so you want to incorporate those viewpoints it also makes a difference even in simple things as you have someone coming back to the government from the private sector or someone who spent 20 years within the department they will look at an issue very differently so what's important to me when I think about inclusive decision making is to ensure that everyone has a voice at the table and I think I will just because you know students are thinking well I'm not making you know world decisions now but even as you make decisions about your life and things that you will do in your career and how you're thinking about even your schoolwork if everyone is agreeing with you make sure that you're finding a dissenting voice so that one it actually helps you better understand the decision you're making and I think that's what I want to do for the ambassador when she's making decisions is ensuring that everyone has a voice at the table Thanks Kelly that was perfect I think this also gets to one of the questions that are it's kind of bubbling in the back of my mind is about you know how do we get the information we need so I'm curious to kind of hear from you guys and gals about what podcasts what kind of news sources should students be you know reading and sourcing and kind of going to on a daily basis to get up to speed and get current on global affairs issues and foreign policy matters let's start with you Michael and then kind of work our way around whoever kind of just shout out when you're ready so hey I I read everything that I can get my hands on so I've specifically I mean economist is probably my favorite Axios gets some clicks from me you know in terms of foreign policy specific I'll I'll leave it to to my colleagues other than other than kind of you know the things that that come in the papers but I'll say this if you look at a network like like Fox 51% of Americans are watching that right so 51% to to Kelly's point 51% of people that are in this country are watching that every day just like you watch I don't know ESPN or or CNN or another station so when you have that perspective and you understand it intimately you're able to engage in discourse a bit more you're able to understand others perspectives so you know whether it's MSNBC or O9 or Fox and everything in between I'm listening and reading to all of it Desiree Megan what are you guys reading? Sure I wish I had the time or attention span that Michael has I can't read everything I have ADD so I listen to podcasts that's super helpful for me first thing in the morning when I'm getting ready I listen to NPR up first it's a really good mix of domestic but also international news and then I listen to the New York Times The Daily podcast and then I listen to other podcasts that may mostly focus on domestic issues but could also sprinkle in some international stuff because for me I really do believe not just on racial justice issues but on a lot of things particularly something as big as democracy our credibility begins at home and so understand what we're doing here at home and how we are working through some very real challenges here helps me think through how we approach that in the UN and with our partners right so those are some of my favorites I try to read the New York Times in the morning I try to read the Wall Street Journal but again I don't have the attention span so I usually get the headlines I try to do a quick scan I follow like legitimate news sources sources on Twitter because that's also a really good source for news but again don't fall for the clickbait don't fall for the headline so yeah sometimes you have to fact check those so I always make sure that I'm looking at credible sources and then when I'm focused on a specific region it's also very important for me that I'm following voices from that region so for instance when I was focused specifically on Eastern and Southern Africa I was following and listening to all the podcasts and newses from local South African newspapers from local Tanzanian newspapers from local Kenyan journalists right when you are engaged in foreign policy obviously you're representing the U.S. but you also is critically important that you listen to the perspectives from the people of the country that you are serving in or that you are trying to help and that you center those voices because a lot of times we can come with our own assumptions that may be misplaced or misguided so that was a very long wedded answer but I hope it was helpful yeah yeah, go ahead go right ahead yep well I'll just Deseret and I clearly listen to the same podcast I start with the daily and up first every morning and you know I was just thinking as Deseret was speaking like what not to age myself or out any of my colleagues for their age but you know growing up I remember listening to the Iraq war on the radio and that was it right like there was TV but in terms of digesting information there wasn't a ton so I'll put a plug in for the Council for Foreign Relations podcast War on the Rocks there's some really good there's some really good podcast out there the president's daily brief or sorry the week ahead there's some just some really good podcast out there in general that cover some of the topics that are that were engaging with foreign policy and then in terms of reading you know as a public diplomacy officer I'm lucky enough that I kind of have to read a little bit of news every day and I love it because it's great I get to part of my job is to see what's political saying what's happening on the hill what's going on in foreign policy so it's really kind of nice to get a sense of it in fact right now I have about 15 tabs open of articles I meant to read yesterday and today and I don't get to all of them but you know like Desiree said at least you can read some headlines and pull something up and get a sense of you know what legitimate sources are out there saying that we at the State Department should probably be paying attention to that's great I'll leave the line the final word to Kelly before we close out I think we're almost at time but curious to kind of hear all the you know publications and news that's coming your way that you see you know come into your your inbox how do you you know what are you reading what sticks out and what kind of speaks to you on a more personal level when you're when you're thinking about foreign policy okay well I was it's funny because I was listening to Megan when she's talking about the radio because I was like I do a lot of radio listening because it allows me to do other things and multitask but I am NPR all things considered is my go to and I just love it and I would also say that I'm a weekend reader of the Washington Post I go from front to back but when it comes to really getting your information I would say I'm a rabbit hole reader I can literally start on Twitter and just continue to go so I want to say that all of the things that you're reading are useful and helpful and you should read anything and everything obviously fact check but I want to make a plug here tie for local news and the reason I'm saying this is because I have lived in Haiti and Brazil and all of those places and as Desiree mentioned I start to read locally and if you don't understand what's happening around you even in the United States you're less helpful on the global stage so I do spend a lot of my time looking at local news so that I can understand what the community around us is going through because it helps us explain why foreign policy is important so thank you Kelly so much thank you all for joining today's session I'm so proud to call all of you colleagues and you know in celebration of Black History Month I'll leave you with two quotes one from Ralph Bunch during his Nobel Peace Prize accepting speech she says the United Nations is the greatest peace organization ever dedicated to the salvation of mankind's feature on earth and the other from Ambassador Thomas Greenfield her separate confirmation hearing testimony where she says but that's only true of America's leading the way so that leadership starts now when you're studying in school and asking those hard questions about the world around you please stay in touch find us on LinkedIn please read your local news and stay abreast of what's happening around you and I wish you all looking to continue to success but thanks again to the panelists today I am going to switch gears and introduce our next featured speaker who is going to give today's closing remarks I will only share a few of her many career highlights from her bio including on January 20th 2021 Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield was nominated by President Biden to be the U.S. Representative to the United Nations as well as in the UN Security Council she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 23rd 2021 and sworn in on February 24th 2021 by Vice President Kamala Harris Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield or LTG is a career diplomat returned to public service after retiring number 35 distinguished career with the U.S. Foreign Service in 2017 from 2013 to 2017 she served as Assistant Secretary for African Affairs prior to this she served as the Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources from 2012 to 2013 she's also sorry Ambassador Thomas Greenfield distinguished Foreign Service career includes an ambassadorship to Liberia and postings in Switzerland Pakistan Kenya the Gambia Nigeria and Jamaica in Washington she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population and Refugees and Migration after retiring from the U.S. State Department in 2017 Ambassador Thomas Greenfield led the Africa Practice at the Albright Stonebridge Group and then Ambassador Thomas Greenfield holds a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University and a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin where she also did some work toward a doctorate she received an honorary doctor of law degree from the University of Wisconsin in May 2018 and an honorary doctor of philosophy from the University of Liberia in May 2012 Ambassador Thomas Greenfield welcome I now turn it over to you to close us out and thank you for joining us Thank you Ty and I really appreciate that long introduction whenever I hear that introduction I always say we need to shorten that thing so one of these days I will shorten it I did have the opportunity to listen in at the tail end of this panel discussion and I couldn't agree more with all of our colleagues who talked about foreign policy and how you inform yourselves and I absolutely think being knowing the local news knowing what's happening around you every day is as important as knowing what is happening around the world it really is a privilege for me to close out day one of the State Department's 13th annual HBCU foreign policy summit and I'm shocked at 13th because I remember the first so we've come a long ways you just heard from some of my favorite people discussing the role HBCUs have played for international organizations specifically in State Department history more broadly up to the very present I didn't attend an HBCU I always regretted that but I have benefited from the friendship and the support and the expertise of many HBCU alums during my time here still I think I first really understood what HBCUs were all about when I brought my son to attend Howard University Law School and in a meeting with the parents they said something I'll never forget and it really resonated with me they said you know at this institution when you fall down we make sure you get back up we pick you back up when you fall down and I was struck by that because when I attended Louisiana State University and I can tell you I went through many moments when I was down there was nobody to pick me back up the attitude was not quite the same there at the time when I fell down when the challenges and the pressures got to be too much no one picked me back up and that meant I was at risk like many young people today of not getting here at all some of my fellow Black students at LSU didn't graduate with me they lacked a support network they didn't have a community to make sure they made it through and in my view what really differentiates HBCUs across the board you have a strong community you have tight bonds that you have an attitude of making sure no one gets left behind and at schools like all of yours the community understands and you understand and your faculty understand and they know that through you failure is not an option everyone is looking out for you they're pulling for you to succeed your professors your administrators the staff fellow students everyone gets that with a little help we can all make it to the to the finish line and that's what make HBCUs so special I know my fellow cabinet members who attended HBCUs the vice president for example Howard University EPA administrator Reagan would both agree and that is exactly the kind of attitude we need here at the State Department and for American diplomacy at large we need people who understand the importance of community of looking out for each other and be there to pick you up and lift you up when you stumble we need your talent we need your vigor we need your diversity and the depth of experiences that you will bring to our organizations I sometimes get asked why it's important to have a cabinet that looks like America and the answer is simple our job is to represent the American people and the American people are represented by many hues if the cabinet doesn't look like America then we're not doing our jobs and the same holds true not just for the cabinet but for our foreign service and for the State Department we're diplomats our job is to represent the American people and we have to look like America we have to be America to do that there's nothing more devastating nothing more devastating happened to me in my career is when I'm going into an embassy and because I'm black the assumption is that I'm not an American or I walk into a meeting and people look behind me at one of my white colleagues assuming that I'm not the person because I'm African American so it is very important that we have diversity in our organization and once more we know that racial diversity is an American strength it's not a weakness and the Biden administration understands that and they embrace that in all of their principles I think other illustrious HBCU alums who served in the State Department understand that principle too one of them was Patricia Robert Harris she served as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly and then she was nominated and served as the ambassador to Luxembourg our country's first female black ambassador I mean can you imagine the first female black ambassador before she would become a cabinet member for two different agencies and in her confirmation hearing she made this point if my life has any meaning if my life has any meaning at all she said it is that those who start out as outcasts can wind up as being part of the system and I could not relate to that sentiment more fully I grew up in a small Louisiana town in the segregated south where we were treated like second class citizens my father never learned to read so that was another X on my forehead my mother raised me with only a middle school education their perspectives were not necessarily shared with those who made the policy decisions that steered their lives forward in fact they too were very much second or even third class citizens and I think their goal was achieved when they thought that they had put their daughter in a place where I was second class not third class and I wish that they could be here today to see what they produced I knew that my father was the smartest man that I knew everything was in his head and he could produce it you know he didn't need a pen a pencil to write out his thoughts they came directly from his head and they were always coherent my mother taught me to lead with kindness and compassion so as I rose through the ranks of my career I have been determined to bring their voices into the room every single time I speak and now that I sit behind the United States placard at the United Nations and represent the American people to the world it's a very different chapter than the first chapter of my life and I think that is emblematic of the progress our country has made as a whole that's what this foreign policy HBCU conference is all about it's about ensuring we bring underrepresented perspectives to the forefront of our foreign policy right into the heart of our government and into the heart of our diplomacy because it is our government too it's everybody's government it's your government it's mine and together we will ensure America represents our ideas it represents our values our perspectives and all of its diversity on the world stage so let me end by thanking you for joining us today but also encouraging you to look beyond whatever perspectives or limitations you have put on your own lives and look to new ideas look to new challenges look to go through we normally say the road less traveled but I always say go through the closed door sometimes there are going to be many doors you're going to pass by and they were cracked open a bit they're very inviting because those doors are open but no look for that closed door and open it up and see what surprises and what opportunities are there to be found and that you can take advantage of and that you can contribute to so I look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow for day two of the State Department's HBCU Foreign Policy Conference and wish you the best of luck for the rest of the day thank you very much Ty and thanks to all of you who participated in the panel