The Cab Driver, the Diplomat & the President's Birth Certificate

Public Diplomacy's Glass Ceiling

Phone call with the Ambassador
Very interesting day today.. Had the amazing opportunity to sit in on a phone interview with Ambassador-at-Large Melanne Verveer who heads The Office of Global Women's Issues. I admire her work with Vital Voices so if you care about women's issues and are unfamiliar with their work, check it out here. The interview was for an exciting new project I am working on with Foreign Policy Roundtable (

Photography As Public Diplomacy
My friend and colleague, Paul Rockower opened a beautiful photo exhibit that "pays homage to 'The Family of Man' exhibition that opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955. The exhibition’s world tour proved a tremendous public diplomacy success for America." The stunning compilation of photos from his world wide travels, chronicles the human condition. I was clearly not the only one

Are you racist and don't know it?
I heard about this Harvard study that created an online test you can take to determine your biases. Are you racist? I think most people would say "of course not." But are you really? Do you have a bias against handicapped people? or old people? or fat people? or men? Try these tests to find out. I would love to hear feedback from people about their results. If you don't want to admit your bias

Top Secret Security
A couple articles brought to my attention by Paul about the Security Clearance for State Department Interns..State Department struggles to clear interns State Department Interns Wait (And Wait, And Wait)I found the process to be long, difficult and frustrating. I have done a lot of traveling and I will tell you that when you study abroad and go back-packing across Europe, you don't think to write