Dr. Jung H. Pak is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and is responsible for overseeing relations with Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. She also serves as the Deputy Special Representative for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Prior to arriving at State, she was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where she focused on Korean Peninsula issues, East Asia regional dynamics, and transnational threats related to proliferation, cybersecurity, and climate change. While at Brookings, she authored Becoming Kim Jong Un, which has been translated into multiple languages and draws from her deep knowledge and experience as an intelligence officer. Pak has held senior positions at the Central Intelligence Agency, receiving several awards for contributions to the President’s Daily Brief, superior analytic accomplishments, and service to advance workforce development. As the Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Korea at the National Intelligence Council, she led the Intelligence Community’s production of strategic analysis. Before her career in national security, Dr. Pak taught U.S. history in New York City. She received her PhD from Columbia University and studied in South Korea as a Fulbright Scholar. --- The Diverse Diplomacy Speaker Series is made possible by the Una Chapman Cox Foundation and is part of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s broader mandate to connect students with foreign policy practitioners and professionals to better understand the challenges and opportunities of these careers. Please visit www.diversediplomacy.com for more video content, information, and updates.

Zeinah Salahi is the Mission Director for USAID/Kosovo. She joined the Kosovo mission in July 2019 as the Deputy Mission Director, before assuming her current role in July 2021. Prior to her arrival to Kosovo, Ms. Salahi served as Deputy Mission Director for USAID/Bangladesh, helping to formulate and implement the U.S. Government’s response to the Rohingya refugee crisis. Ms. Salahi joined USAID in March 2009 as a Foreign Service Attorney, beginning her USAID tenure in the General Counsel’s Office in Washington, covering the Africa Bureau. She then served in Egypt during the Arab Spring, in South Sudan shortly after the country’s independence, and again in Egypt for a second tour as the senior Resident Legal Officer from April 2014 until June 2017. Before joining USAID, Ms. Salahi worked for several years as a corporate associate in New York with the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP (2001-2004), and as a negotiations advisor for the Middle East peace process with Adam Smith International (2004-2009). Ms. Salahi received her Bachelor’s degree in international relations from Boston University and a JD from Harvard Law School. The Diverse Diplomacy Leaders Speaker Series connects current and former career Civil and Foreign Service Officers with those considering or entering careers in foreign policy. This event is brought to you as part of an Una Chapman Cox Foundation project on American Diplomacy and the Foreign Service. Learn more about Diverse Diplomacy at diversediplomacy.com.

Carmen G. Cantor, a career member of the Senior Executive Service, is current U.S. Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia. Previously, she served as Director of the Office of Civil Service Human Resource Management in the Bureau of Human Resources, Executive Director for the Bureaus of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and International Information Programs (IIP), and Executive Director of the Bureau of Counterterrorism (CT) at the U.S. Department of State. Ms. Cantor also served as the Deputy Director of the Office of Recruitment, Examination & Employment (REE). During this time, the Department organized and implemented the largest expansion of recruitment, assessment and hiring in State Department history. In May of 2014, Latina Style magazine named her one five Latina Trailblazers of American Foreign Policy at the U.S. Department of State. Ms. Cantor was the Leadership Liaison and a past President of the Department of State’s Hispanic employee affinity group, HECFAA. In 2014, she received the Secretary of State’s EEO Award for her work. Ambassador Cantor will share insights on her Civil Service career, her work on diversity and inclusion, and offer advice for a successful career in foreign policy. The Diverse Diplomacy Leaders Speaker Series connects current and former career Civil and Foreign Service Officers with those considering or entering careers in foreign policy. This event is brought to you as part of an Una Chapman Cox Foundation project on American Diplomacy and the Foreign Service. Learn more about Diverse Diplomacy at diversediplomacy.com.

Highlights on women's empowerment from interviews with: Ambassador Barbara Bodine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnfnrVfMtzk Stephanie Syptak Ramnath: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTdes2Yg7qQ Nicole Bibbins Sedaca: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGpQR9EPOms Julie Chung: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia1jtBK5XZc Explore the series: https://www.diversediplomacy.com/

Ambassador Natalie E. Brown currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Uganda. She previously served as the Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Asmara, Eritrea from 2016-2019. Other senior leadership positions include Deputy Permanent Representative and Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome, Italy from 2013-2016, where she was elected to represent North America on the Finance Committee of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. She will share insights on her Foreign Service career, her work on diversity and inclusion, and offer advice for a successful career in foreign policy. The Diverse Diplomacy Leaders Speaker Series connects current and former career Civil and Foreign Service Officers with those considering or entering careers in foreign policy. This event is brought to you as part of an Una Chapman Cox Foundation project on American Diplomacy and the Foreign Service. Learn more about Diverse Diplomacy at diversediplomacy.com.

Bernadette Meehan is the Chief International Officer at The Obama Foundation, following a 13-year career in the US Foreign Service. From January 2016 to January 2017 she served as a Senior Advisor at the National Security Council (NSC), conducting negotiations with the Cuban government; prior to that assignment, she served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and NSC Spokesperson. Bernadette also served as Special Assistant to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her overseas diplomatic assignments include Dubai, Baghdad, and Bogota. In 2007 Bernadette was selected as a Powell Fellow, recognized as one of the 12 most promising future leaders in the Department of State. Prior to her work in government, Bernadette was a Vice President of Private Banking at J.P. Morgan and Vice President of Asset Management at Lehman Brothers. Bernadette was an adjunct professor and Rusk State Department Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service from 2015 to 2016. She graduated from Boston College with a degree in political science. A native of New York, Bernadette speaks Spanish and conversational Arabic.

Miriam Murray is currently a Desk Officer in the Office of Canadian Affairs. From 2015-2017, Miriam was the Senior Spain and Portugal Desk Officer in the Western European Affairs office. Prior to that assignment, Miriam was a 2014-2015 Rusk Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, where she taught a course on economic engagement in Southeast Asia as well as modules on diplomacy and statecraft to graduate students. Her previous assignments have included Deputy Economic Counselor at the Embassy Bangkok, Banking and Finance Officer at the Embassy in Baghdad, Watch Officer in the Operations Center, Consular/Economic Officer at Embassy Athens, and Deputy Economic Chief in Jerusalem. Prior to joining the Foreign Service in 2004, Miriam worked in the private sector. She graduated with a BSBA from Georgetown University and an MA in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Miriam speaks Arabic, French, Greek, and some Swedish.

Uzra Zeya is CEO of Alliance for Peacebuilding, the leading network for non-governmental organizations working to end conflict and build sustainable peace around the world. A 2018-2019 Non-resident Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Ms. Zeya has over two decades of diplomatic experience in Near East, South Asian, European, human rights, and multilateral affairs. As Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at US Embassy Paris from 2014 to 2017, she oversaw the day-to-day operations of Embassy Paris, six constituent posts, and 50 offices and agencies working to take U.S.-French cooperation to unprecedented levels. Ms. Zeya served previously as Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1990, Ms. Zeya served in New Delhi, Muscat, Damascus, Cairo, and Kingston. As Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State, she helped shape the U.S. response to the Arab Spring and deepened US engagement with emerging powers. She also served as Deputy Executive Secretary to the Secretary of State, as Director of the Executive Secretariat Staff, and as UN General Assembly Coordinator.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield retired in 2017 after a 35-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service. She is currently the inaugural Distinguished Resident Fellow in African Studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. From 2013 to 2017 she served as the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, where she led the bureau focused on the development and management of U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this appointment, she served as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources (2012-2013), leading a team in charge of the State Department’s 70,000-strong workforce. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s distinguished Foreign Service career includes an ambassadorship to Liberia (2008-2012), and postings in Switzerland (at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations), Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Jamaica. In Washington, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs (2006-2008), and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (2004-2006). She earned a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, where she worked towards a PhD.