About this Event
Join the VCWA as we hear from former U.S. Ambassadors, Harriet Elam-Thomas and Charles Ray, for this interactive webinar. Amidst civil unrest and discourse across the country, Ambassadors Elam-Thomas and Ray will delve into systematic racism’s implications for US diplomacy and how the future may look for the US foreign service.
Meet the Panel
Ambassador Harriet Elam-Thomas
Ambassador to Senegal 1999-2003
In September 2005, Ambassador Elam-Thomas retired from the U.S. Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Career Minister. During her four-decade Foreign Service career, she demonstrated a life-long practice of bridging cultures. Her recent book, Diversifying Diplomacy, tells the story of her journey as a Black woman rising through the ranks of the U.S. State Department.
Ambassador Harriet Elam-Thomas directs a rapidly growing global initiative at the University of Central Florida, the Diplomacy Program, which features education and training for undergraduate students. From 2003-2005, she served as Diplomat in Residence at UCF under the auspices of a U.S. Department of State national program. In that capacity, she was the U.S. Department of State’s official liaison in Central Florida, conducting workshops, providing information on careers, connecting students to internship and scholarship opportunities, and speaking on policy matters.
Until the fall of 2005, she was a Senior Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Career Minister. Previously she served as U.S. Ambassador to Senegal from 1999-2003; 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 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. In 2007, she received the Director General’s Cup of the U.S. Department of State.
Ambassador Charles Ray
Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia and Republica of Zimbabwe
Charles A. Ray served as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Zimbabwe. In addition, he was the first U.S. Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, opening the Consulate General in 1998.
From 2006 to 2009, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs, responsible for DoD efforts to account for those missing in combat from World War II to the then current conflicts and for policy related to the rescue of personnel who become isolated, missing, or taken in service abroad.
During his diplomatic career, Ray served as deputy chief of mission in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and at consular posts in Guangzhou and Shenyang, China, and Chiang Mai, Thailand. He was diplomat-in-residence at the University of Houston during the 2005-2006 academic year, responsible for outreach and recruiting at colleges and universities in South Texas.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service in 1982, he served 20 years in the United States Army, with postings in Europe and Asia, including two tours in Vietnam during the war. He retired in 2012 from the Foreign Service and is now engaged in consulting, public speaking, and writing. He is the author of more than 30 works of fiction and nonfiction, including a historical series about the Buffalo Soldiers, the African-American soldiers who served on the western frontier.
Moderated by Denise Johnson
Justice on Vermont Supreme Court
The Honorable Denise R. Johnson was the first woman to be appointed a justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. She served on the Court for 21 years. She participated in historic decisions regarding public school funding, gay marriage, and the right to privacy in one’s home, as well as numerous decisions reviewing criminal trials and procedure.
She was a leader in improving access to justice and was active in the field of continuing judicial education for appellate judges nationwide. In international work, Justice Johnson lectured on criminal procedure at the Universita di Trento, Trento, Italy, and on property rights and employment at-will at the Universita degli Studi di Udine, Udine, Italy. From 2012 – 2014, she was a Legal Specialist for the American Bar Association’s Judicial Reform Program in Yerevan, Armenia, and its Criminal Defense Capacity Programs in Belgrade, Serbia and Skopje, Macedonia. In 2016-2017, she was the Director of Judicial Education in Cairo, Egypt for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative.
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Event Format: Webinar
Attendee Video: Off
Attendee Audio: Off
Attendee Interaction: Polls, Submit Questions through Q+A, Raise Virtual Hand to Request Unmute
In this virtual event, your video will not be displayed and you will be automatically muted. You may interact by submitting questions into the Q+A box, answering polls, and raising your virtual hand to be unmuted.