Ambassador (ret.) Barbara K. Bodine is the Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and concurrent Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. A native of California and graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, she earned her master’s at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Ambassador Bodine spent over 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, primarily focused on the Arabian Peninsula and greater Persian Gulf issues. She served as Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen from 1997-2001, as Deputy Principal Officer in Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq War, and in Kuwait as Deputy Chief of Mission during the Iraqi invasion and occupation of 1990-1991. In 2003, she served as the senior State Department official and the first coalition coordinator for reconstruction in Baghdad and the central governorates. Her first assignment in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs was as Country Officer for the two Yemens and  security assistance coordinator for the peninsula. She later returned to that office as Deputy Director.

Ambassador (Ret.) Bernadette Meehan is the former U.S. ambassador to Chile. A native of New York, she graduated from Boston College with a degree in Political Science. She previously served as Executive Vice President of Global Programs at the Obama Foundation. 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. Meehan also served as Special Assistant to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her overseas diplomatic assignments include Dubai, Baghdad, and Bogota. In 2007 Meehan was selected as a Powell Fellow, recognized as one of the 12 most promising future leaders in the Department of State.

Ambassador (ret.) Julieta Valls Noyes, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia from 2015-2017. The daughter of Cuban refugees, she is a graduate of Wellesley College and has a master’s degree from the National Defense University. Most recently, she served as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration from 2022-2024. She also served as Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Foreign Service Institute from 2018-2021 and held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. As Deputy Executive Secretary for the Department of State from 2011-2013, she managed trips and oversaw the preparation of briefing materials for two Secretaries of State. Ambassador Noyes was Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See from 2008-2011. Ambassador Noyes has also served as Deputy Director of the Operations Center; Director of the Office of Multilateral and Global Affairs in the bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; and in domestic and overseas positions in the Bureaus of European and Western Hemisphere Affairs. She was Political Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Panama from 1999-2002.

Ambassador (ret.) Linda Thomas-Greenfield served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2021-2025. She had previously retired in 2017 after a 35-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service. A native of Louisiana, she graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Arts and earned a Master of Public Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 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. Prior to this appointment, she served as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources (2012-2013). 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).

Ambassador (ret.) Lino Gutiérrez served as the United States Ambassador to Argentina from 2003-2006. A native of Havana, Cuba, Gutiérrez held a master’s and bachelor’s from the University of Alabama, and also attended the University of Miami. He was CEO of Gutiérrez Global LLC, a consulting firm specializing in strategic advice for corporations interested in investing in Latin America and Europe. He also was as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University. In December 2010, Gutiérrez was named Executive Director of the Una Chapman Cox Foundation, which is dedicated to a strong and professional Foreign Service. Ambassador Gutiérrez served as Senior Advisor to Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutiérrez on the Cuba transition and Latin America from 2007-2009. After a 29-year career in which he served six U.S. Presidents and 13 Secretaries of State, Lino Gutiérrez retired from the Department of State in November 2006.

Ambassador (ret.) Todd D. Robinson served as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Guatemala from 2014-2017. A native of New Jersey, Ambassador Robinson is a graduate of the Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Most recently, he was Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs from 2021-2025. Prior to his position as Assistant Secretary, Ambassador Robinson served as the Director of the International Student Management Office at the National Defense University. He also previously served as Senior Advisor for Central America in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs in Washington, DC. He was Chargé d’Affaires in Caracas, Venezuela from 2017 to 2018, when he was expelled by President Maduro. From 2009 until 2011, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala. Prior to that, he was Consul General and Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Barcelona, Spain and Chief of the Political and Economic Section in the U.S. Embassy in Tirana, Albania. Other overseas postings include the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Vatican City, Italy, El Salvador, and Colombia. In Washington, DC, Ambassador Robinson served in the Department’s Operations Center and as a Special Assistant to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Arsalan Suleman is a partner in Foley Hoag’s International Litigation & Arbitration Practice, and a former Acting Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the world’s second-largest international organization after the United Nations. A Native of New Orleans, he is a graduate of the Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and received an MPhil. in International Peace Studies from Trinity College, Dublin, as a George Mitchell Scholar, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He engaged with the OIC and its member countries on bilateral and multilateral foreign policy issues, establishing partnerships in human rights, countering violent extremism, health, education, entrepreneurship, and science and technology. Suleman also served in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor as the lead multilateral human rights policy adviser on freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

Dr. Jung H. Pak was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and was responsible for overseeing relations with Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands from 2021-2024. A native of New York, she holds a BA in history from Colgate University and a PhD in U.S. history from Columbia University. She served 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 authored Becoming Kim Jong Un. 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.

Ambassador (ret.) James Irwin Gadsden served as the United States Ambassador to Iceland from 2002-2005. Ambassador Gadsden was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He earned a B.A. in economics from Harvard University and an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University. He continued graduate studies in economics at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. He is a former Senior Career Foreign Service Officer and former Senior Counselor for International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey. Before joining the Foundation, he was a Diplomat-in-Residence and Lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 2007, he served as Senior Advisor for European Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. His assignments prior to that included Deputy to the Commandant and international Affairs Advisor at the National War College (NWC), Senior Advisor for European Affairs at the US Mission to the UN, and Deputy Commandant and International Affairs Advisor at the NWC. He was also Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Budapest, Counselor for Economic Affairs at the US Embassy in Paris, economic/political officer at the US Mission to the European Communities in Brussels, and European Communities desk officer at the State Department.

Jennifer Gavito was the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs until 2023. She is currently a Senior Advisor to the Cohen Group, co-leading the firm’s Middle East practice. Orginially from Missouri, she attended American University. She previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran, Iraq, and Public Diplomacy from 2021-2023. Prior to that role, she served as the Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in London. From 2015-2018, she was the U.S. Consul General in Munich, Germany, where she was the senior U.S. government representative to Bavaria. She also served as Chief of the Political Section at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem from 2012-2015 and as the Foreign Affairs Policy Advisor to the U.S. Africa Command’s Director for Plans, Policies, and Programs (J5) from 2011-2012. Additional assignments have included: Deputy Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Dubai; Director for Syria and Lebanon on the staff of the National Security Council at the White House; Deputy Director of the Maghreb Affairs Office in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs; Libya Desk Officer; and as head of the Economic/Commercial section at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Her early assignments were at the U.S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua and at the U.S. Consulate General in Frankfurt, Germany.

Ned Price served as Deputy to the U.S. Representative to the United Nations and as Senior Advisor to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken untill 2025. A native of Texas, he graduated from Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and earned his masters degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He worked at the Department of State from January 2021, when he assumed the role of Department Spokesperson, a title he held until March 2023. He was Co-Founder and Director of Policy and Communications at National Security Action, a non-profit advocacy organization. During the Obama-Biden administration, he served as Special Assistant to President Obama on the National Security Council staff, where he also was the Spokesperson and Senior Director for Strategic Communications. Prior to his time at the White House, he was at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he was a senior analyst and Spokesperson.

Nicole Bibbins Sedaca is the Kelly and David Pfeil Fellow at the George W. Bush Presdiential Center and previous interim president of Freedom House. Bibbins Sedaca holds a Master’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from The College of William and Mary, where she was a Presidential and Monroe Scholar. She was the Chair for the Global Politics and Security Concentration in Georgetown University’s Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program and is a Professor in the Practice of International Affairs in MSFS. Sedaca has held numerous positions in the public and non-governmental sectors in the United States and Ecuador. She served for ten years in the United States Department of State, working on democracy promotion, human rights, human trafficking, religious freedom, refugees, and counterterrorism. During this time, her positions included: the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, the Senior Director for Strategic Planning and External Affairs in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and the Special Assistant to the Ambassador-At-Large for Counterterrorism.

Ramon Escobar is a career Foreign Service Officer who has served in a diverse range of tours in the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America. He is currently managing director at Actum. A native of Wisconsin, he holds a B.A. in Business Marketing from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and a dual M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York and Sciences Politiques in Paris. He served as Director for Western Hemisphere Strategy on the United States National Security Council from 2022-2024. Escobar was formerly assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City as energy officer. He was an ISD Rusk Fellow at Georgetown in 2015-2016. Prior assignments include the Colombia Desk at the State Department, where he assisted Special Envoy Bernard Aronson in the U.S. effort to end Latin America’s longest-running conflict. From 2012-2013, Ramon worked in the Executive Secretariat, coordinating information flows and travel for Secretary Clinton and then Secretary Kerry. Other assignments include as energy officer in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad; as staff aide to Ambassador Louis Susman in the U.S. Embassy in London; and as political and economic officer in Saudi Arabia.

Uzra Zeya served as the Under Secretary of State for civilian security, democracy, and human rights from 2021-2025 and is currently President and CEO of Human Rights First. A Native of North Carolina, she is a graduate of the Gerogetown Edmund E. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She is the incoming President and CEO of Human Rights First and previously served as CEO of Alliance for Peacebuilding. A 2018-2019 non-resident Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Zeya has over two decades of diplomatic experience in Near East, South Asian, European, human rights, and multilateral affairs. She was Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at US Embassy Paris from 2014 to 2017. She also previously served 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, Zeya has 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 (ret.) Reuben E. Brigety, II is the President of Busara Advisors, Inc. From 2022- 2025, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa. A native of Florida, he is a Distinguished Midshipman Graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he earned a B.S. in political science (with merit) and served as the Brigade Commander. He holds an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Cambridge (cantab) and a Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa) from Old Dominion University. He is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a recipient of the Council’s International Affairs Fellowship, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Diplomacy. He also served as U.S. Representative to the African Union and U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Economic for Africa from 2013-2015. From 2011-2013, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. He was Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs (ESIA) at The George Washington University from 2015-2020. While serving as Dean, he founded ESIA’s Institute for African Studies. From 2015-2022, he also served on the Board of Counselors of McLarty Associates.

Ambassador (ret.) Harriet Elam-Thomas served as the U.S. Ambassador to Senegal from 1999-2003. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she holds a B.S. in International Business from Simmons College and an M.A. in Public Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University. Most recently, she directed the Diplomacy Program at the University of Central Florida, before retiring from the university. Some of her career accomplishments include serving as Chief of Mission to Guinea-Bissau; Acting Director of USIA; Cultural Attaché at the American Embassy in Athens; Country Affairs Officer for Greece, Turkey and Cyprus; Director of the American Press and Cultural Center, American Consulate, Istanbul, Turkey; and in other positions at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the President’s Appointments Office at the White House and the Foreign Service Personnel Office. Ambassador Elam-Thomas’ additional posts abroad were in France, Mali, and the Ivory Coast. She is also the recipient of numerous awards including the U.S. Government’s Superior Honor Award, the Lois Roth Award for Excellence in Informational and Cultural Diplomacy, and a Group Superior and Meritorious Honor Award for her work in connection with the first Persian Gulf War.

Ambassador (ret.) Don Yamamoto served as U.S. Ambassador to Somalia from 2018 to 2021. Following this appointment, he helped lead the processing of Afghan evacuees at Dulles Airport in 2021. Yamamoto was born in Seattle, Washington, to a Japanese immigrant father and a Nisei mother. He graduated from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Yamamoto emphasizes that his desire to serve was partially inspired by his family.  

“Interned with over 122,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, some of my family members were sent to the Minidoka, Idaho relocation camp.  Despite the anguish of being uprooted, my uncles, Arthur and Joseph, joined 33,000 other Japanese Americans to serve in the U.S. military. Senator Inouye said 'it was a clarion call to defend this nation and the constitution, to do what was right,' a sentiment that inspired them to serve. My uncles served with the Japanese American 442nd regimental combat unit, 100th Battalion of the U.S. Army that helped liberate Bruyeres, France and rescue 211 Texan National Guardsman, the ‘lost battalion,’ from Nazi encirclement.  It was that spirit of service that was instilled to my generation and to my own two children, who now serve as U.S. Army officers.“ 

Yamamoto was previously the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in 2013 and again from 2017-2018. He also served as the Senior Vice President for International Programs and Outreach at the National Defense University from 2016–2017, Senior Advisor to the Director General of the Foreign Service on personnel reform from 2015–2016, Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Mission Somalia office in Mogadishu in 2016; and in senior positions in Kabul, Mazar e-Sharif, and Bagram, Afghanistan from 2014–2015. He is the former Chargé d’Affaires ad interim in Eritrea (1997–1998), U.S. Ambassador to Djibouti (2000–2003), U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia (2006–2009), and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary within the Bureau for African Affairs.

Gabriel Escobar assumed the position of Charge d’Affaires, a.i., at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia on January 21, 2025.  He is a graduate of Columbia University in New York and Cathedral High School in El Paso, Texas. Before serving in Brazil, he was the Deputy Assistant Secretary, overseeing policy towards the countries of the Western Balkans and the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of European Affairs. Previously, he also served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade. His leadership positions in the Department of State include Economic Minister Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Coordinator for Cuban Affairs in the Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2017-2018, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia 2014-2017, Consul General at the U.S. Consulate General in Peshawar, Pakistan 2013-2014, and Team Leader of the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kirkuk, Iraq 2009-2010. From 1998-2001, Gabriel completed four consecutive tours in the former Yugoslavia, including serving as the Chief of Staff for the Office of the High Representative in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Head of the Embassy Branch Office in Banja Luka, the Deputy Head of the U.S. Diplomatic Liaison Team in Podgorica, and Political Unit Chief in Belgrade. In the Bureau of European Affairs, Gabriel has served as Counselor for Political and Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, Deputy Political Counselor in Rome, Political-Military Officer in Prague, and Vice Consul in Moscow.

Mustafa Popal is a senior American diplomat with the rank of Minister-Counselor. Since 2023, he has served as a Senior State Department Fellow at Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. Before joining Georgetown University, he served as Chief of Staff to Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Deputy Executive Secretary to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. Born in Afghanistan and raised in Virginia, he graduated from Georgetown University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Popal's diplomatic postings abroad include Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, and Kuwait. He has also served at the White House, first as NSC Director for Iran and Gulf Affairs and later as Special Advisor to the Vice President for the Middle East and South/Central Asia in the Obama Administration. Before joining the Foreign Service, Popal was Country Director for Afghanistan in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon during the Bush Administration. He is the recipient of the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Civilian Service Medal, the Secretary of State's Distinguished Honor Award, and the Department of State Award for Heroism. 

Smith-Wilson is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics & Law Enforcement Affairs. Smith-Wilson joined the Foreign Service after interning at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas as a Thomas Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellow.  She holds an M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National War College, an M.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University, and a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from Duke University. Previously, she served as the Deputy Director of the Foreign Service Institute. She was also the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources. Other leadership assignments include Deputy Director of the State Department’s Operations Center, Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, and Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Panama. Smith-Wilson has also served overseas in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Kenya. She is the recipient of the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award and several Superior Honor Awards. 

Amb. Donald Lu served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic from 2018-2021 and the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Albania from 2015-2018. From Huntington beach California, he is a graduate of Princeton University with both master’s and bachelor’s degrees in international relations. Most recently, Lu served as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs from 2021-2025. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador to Albania, he worked on the Ebola crisis in West Africa as the Deputy Coordinator for Ebola Response in the Department of State. He also served as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in India (2010-2013), Chargé d’Affaires (2009-2010) and DCM (2007-2009) in Azerbaijan, and as DCM in Kyrgyzstan (2003-2006).  With over 30 years of service, he has worked as Deputy Director in the Office of Central Asian and South Caucasus Affairs, in the Bureau of European Affairs, as Special Assistant to the Ambassador for the Newly Independent States in the Office of the Secretary of State, and in India, Georgia, and Pakistan.