State Department and Foreign Service Careers and Internships

Event name: State Department and Foreign Service Careers and Internships

Presented by: Anne O'Leary, a senior State Department career Foreign Service Officer with 28 years of experience

Tuesday, April 1, 4:00-5:30 PM, WSC Murray Boardroom

Anne O'Leary joined the Foreign Service in 1980 and has risen to its senior ranks through assignments that have brought her into contact with some of the major issues in U.S. foreign policy. A public diplomacy officer and Arabic speaker, she was more often than not the first woman assigned to the various positions she occupied throughout the Arab and Muslim world.

Most recently, Anne played a leading role among the international community in Kabul, coordinating strategic communication efforts and supporting Afghan initiatives in public information. In previous diplomatic assignments, she set up the first reciprocal delegations between the United States and Libya; started a micro-scholarship program for disadvantaged Moroccan youth that has been replicated in 44 countries; and rebuilt American press, academic and cultural programs with Lebanon following its civil war. Anne brought Israelis and Palestinians together in the United States to reduce incitement in a program that was the US Government's first "deliverable" following the Wye River Accords. After Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests, she arranged a similar program for concerned citizens from the two nations. She has helped Burmese and Tibetan refugees secure Fulbright fellowships, and during a three-year posting in New Delhi she was the only US diplomat running official programs with the Kingdom of Bhutan. Anne managed a popular cultural center in Alexandria, Egypt on a shoestring budget, and doubled the range and size of professional exchange programs during her years in Jordan and Bahrain. She also brought three international delegations to the United States in support of global Y2K remediation efforts.

Anne earned commendations from the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command for arranging international media access in the Persian/Arabian Gulf during the Iraq-Iran war, as well as a State Department Superior Honor Award for her work following the attack on the U.S.S. Stark. Other awards recognized her contributions to public diplomacy training, to the U.S. - Morocco Free Trade Agreement, and to cultural exchange between the United States and the nations of North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Anne has also received awards from the Egyptian and Jordanian governments.

Currently, Anne is the Diplomat in Residence at U.C. Berkeley and recruits at universities along the West Coast.

For more information on careers with the Department of State, visit http://careers.state.gov