Please note this is a hybrid event - you have the option to attend in person or virtually. Registrations are required for all attendees. For in-person attendees, the event will run from 12 - 2 pm and will include lunch. The live stream will begin around 1:10 pm (virtual attendees will be sent a link for the event via email).
Join DACOR for a moderated discussion with a selection of Ambassadors from DACOR’s membership ranks in celebration of International Women’s Day. They will focus on their careers in foreign affairs over the years. The panel will include Ambassadors Eunice Reddick, Mattie R. Sharpless and Sylvia Stanfield. Asha Castleberry-Hernandez will moderate.
Asha Castleberry is a national security and foreign policy expert, U.S. Army veteran, and Author of Why National Security Matters, and former U.S. Congressional candidate. With over a decade of experience in Middle East policy, she served as a Senior Official in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs under the Biden-Harris Administration and held key roles in Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan. A sought-after speaker, Asha has participated in high-level forums, including the Erbil Security Forum and the Foreign Policy Institute Black Sea Conference. Asha served as a Cyrus Vance Visiting Professor at Mount Holyoke College, she has also taught at Fordham, George Washington, and Baruch College. A Military Officer in the Army Reserves, Asha is a Council on Foreign Relations member, founder of the Diversity in National Security Network, and a recipient of numerous honors, including the Middle East Policy Council’s 40 Under 40. A graduate of Hampton University and Columbia University, with studies at Oxford and in China, she is frequently featured in many national and international outlets like CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, Fox News, BBC News, Voices of America, and The Washington Post.
Eunice Reddick held two ambassadorial appointments -- in Niamey, Niger from 2014 to 2017, and in Libreville, Gabon from 2007 to 2010. She also served as Charge d’affaires at U.S. Embassy Bujumbura from 2019 to 2020, and U.S. Embassy Nouakchott in 2014.
Previously, Reddick served in the State Department Bureau of African Affairs (AF) from 2011 to 2013 as Director of the Office of West African Affairs, and from 2005 to 2007 as Director of the Office of East African Affairs. From 2002 to 2004, she was Director of the Office of Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore Affairs in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP) after a stint as Deputy Director of that office when it also covered Indonesia. From 1997 to 2000, she was political section chief at the American Institute in Taiwan.
Reddick served as Deputy Director in the Office of Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam Affairs in EAP, and also in the Office of International Development Assistance in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs. She was a Senior Watch Officer in the Operations Center from 1988 to 1989. From 1989 to 1991, she studied Mandarin Chinese, followed by an assignment in the political section at U.S. Embassy Beijing.
In 1981, Reddick was assigned as a consular officer at U.S. Embassy Harare, followed by a tour in the Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration Affairs monitoring USG assistance to African refugees. From 1986 to 1988, Reddick served as Country Officer for Tanzania and the India Ocean countries in AF.
Reddick received the Dean and Virginia Rusk Fellowship in 1993 and spent a year as an Associate at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. She was Diplomat-in-Residence at Howard University from 2010 to 2011.
Following retirement from the Foreign Service, Reddick was the 2018-19 DACOR Lecturer at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas, and the 2022 International Law Lecturer at the Hamilton Lugar School of International and Global Studies at Indiana University. She was an instructor at the Washington International Diplomacy Academy, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and a professional skills development instructor at Howard University for the Pickering and Rangel Fellowship Programs. Reddick served on the selection committees for the Rangel Fellowship Program, the Ambassador Donald McHenry Global Fellows Program at Georgetown University, and the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) Scholarship program.
Reddick is a member of the International Advisory Council for the official celebration of America’s 250th independence anniversary in 2026. She holds Board of Director positions with Black Professionals in International Affairs, American Women for International Understanding, and Helen Keller International.
Reddick received a BA in history and literature from New York University and a master's degree in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International Affairs. After completing her graduate studies, Reddick worked for several years at the Africa-America Institute in New York and Washington DC.
The Honorable Mattie R. Sharpless, with 41 distinguished years of service in the Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), having attained the rank of Ambassador, retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in January 2006. From July 2003 to January 2006, she served as Special Adviser to USDA’s Deputy Under Secretary, Farm and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, where she worked to develop initiatives to harness science and technology to improve agricultural productivity in developing countries, with emphasis on Africa.
Ambassador Sharpless was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the Central African Republic on October 23, 2001, a position she held until June 2003. During her tenure in the Central African Republic, Ambassador Sharpless traveled widely to strengthen bilateral and political relations between the two countries. She was also privileged to have a school named in her honor while serving in Bangui, Central African Republic.
Prior to her Ambassadorial appointment, Ambassador Sharpless served as Acting Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). In this capacity, she was responsible for overseeing and administering programs to expand export opportunities for U.S. agricultural and forest products, and to promote food security worldwide. She managed some 1,000 employees and a budget of over $100 million, with staff in over 75 U.S. Embassies around the globe.
From July 1999 to January 2001, Ambassador Sharpless served as Special Envoy to Emerging Economies in the Foreign Agricultural Service. During this period, she focused on the development of new markets, with particular emphasis on USDA’s initiatives to strengthen the economic partnership with Sub-Saharan Africa and its integration into the world trading system.
Ambassador Sharpless has had a distinguished career in foreign agricultural trade relations, having served in a variety of positions in Washington and abroad since joining the Foreign Agricultural Service in 1965. Most notably, she served as Agricultural Minister-Counselor at the American Embassy in Paris, France from 1995- 1999; Agricultural Counselor in Rome, Italy; Agricultural Counselor in Bern, Switzerland; Agricultural Attaché at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium; and as Agricultural Assistant at the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, France from 1968-1973.
A native of Hampstead, North Carolina, Ambassador Sharpless holds a Masters in Business Administration and Economics from North Carolina Central University (NCCU), and a B.S. Degree in Business Education from North Carolina College, Durham, NC. She chairs NCCU’s External Advisory Board and serves on the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. She participates in programs of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Kappa Sorority, Inc., and works with youth groups and humanitarian organizations reaching out to help strengthen their educational and economic capabilities. She has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the Presidential Meritorious Service Award, NCCU’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) Distinguished Alumni Award, among others.
Ambassador (retired) Sylvia Gaye Stanfield was the U.S. Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam from 1999-2002 and a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service.
Asia was the focus of much of her 30 plus years with the Foreign Service. Her first overseas assignment was with the then American Embassy in Taipei, Taiwan. As a political track Chinese language officer, she had postings with the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and the American Institute in Taiwan in Taipei. She served on the State Department’s “China desk” at the time of the U.S. established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China and later headed the Office of Taiwan Coordination Affairs. She was Director of Australian and New Zealand Affairs prior to serving as Charge d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand. Her wide-ranging Washington assignments included the Operations Center, the Bureau of African Affairs, the Bureau of International Organizations Affairs, the Office of the Inspector General, the Board of Examiners, and the Senior Seminar. She was Diplomat-in-Residence at Florida A&M University and at Spelman College before serving as Senior Advisor for Mentoring Coordination at the Department of State.
Following her retirement from the Foreign Service, she has remained engaged in mentoring activities and has worked with the Pickering and Rangel Programs, in addition to serving on the selection committees for the Pickering and Payne Fellowship programs.
She is President emeritus of the International Association of Black Professionals in International Affairs (BPIA) – an organization founded in the late 1980’s to increase the interest and involvement of African Americans in international affairs, a member of the Association of Black American Ambassadors, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs. A past present of the Western College Alumnae Association Board of Trustees, she was also a Director of the Miami University (Ohio) Foundation Board. She currently serves as Vice President of DACOR-an organization of foreign affairs professionals.
A native Texan, she earned a B.A. degree in intercultural studies from Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. Awarded an East-West Center grant for graduate studies, she received a M.A. degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii and continued her language studies at the University of Hong Kong School of Oriental Studies and Linguistics. After joining the Foreign Service, she did further study in Mandarin and Cantonese at the State Department’s School of Advanced Chinese Language and Area Studies in Taiwan. In 2021, Miami University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.
Location
Setting: Hybrid DACOR Bacon House OR Online 1801 F Street, NW Washington, DC 20006 UNITED STATES
