Afghanistan: Lessons Learned for America's Future--Insights of USAID Mission Directors to Kabul
Event Type(s):
Development Dialogue at DACOR
Description:
A full generation ago, USAID re-opened America's foreign assistance in Afghanistan. Join us for a panel on lessons learned by prominent USAID Senior Officials who served there as Mission Director or U.S. Assistance Coordinator, followed by discussion on the implications for America's next generation.
Panelists:
Craig Buck joined USAID in 1969. During a 34 year career with USAID he managed and directed six USAID Missions on four continents. Two of the Missions he directed had regional responsibilities, adding five more countries to his management portfolio. Buck has unique experience in setting up new USAID programs in post-conflict situations and in mobilizing and organizing development resources to complement foreign policy goals. He established the USAID Missions and initiated programs in Uganda, the five countries of Central Asia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Afghanistan. After leaving USAID Buck managed business development and marketing activities for several years for a private consulting firm, and more recently served again in senior USAID positions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Pakistan, and Honduras.
Alonzo Fulgham currently leads global business initiatives for Galileo Energy Partners (GEP). Before assuming the presidency of GEP he was the Senior Vice President for Strategy and Sustainable International Development at CH2M, the international civil engineering and infrastructure firm. He is also the founder and principal of TJM International Consultants, LLC, and a Vice President of IRD. He spent over twenty years in USAID, including serving, at President Obama's request, as Acting Administrator from 2009 to 2010. From 2006 to 2009 he was the first Chief Operating Officer ever appointed in USAID, From June 2005 to July 2006 he was Mission Director in Afghanistan, and from 2003 to 2005 he was Director for South Asian Affairs. In 1989 he began his USAID career in Swaziland and subsequently served in Jordan, Serbia, Montenegro, Georgia and Azerbaijan. He was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Haiti.
Leon “Skip” Waskin is DevTech’s Senior Director for Operations. During his USAID career of over 30 years, Skip had many important positions. Before coming to DevTech, he was the Coordinator for Economic and Development Assistance at the US Embassy in Islamabad; immediately prior to that, he spent nearly three years in Karachi as USAID’s Deputy Mission Director. Before Pakistan, he headed USAID’s Office of Response Coordination in Haiti and was leader of USAID/Washington’s Haiti Task Team. Prior to Haiti, Skip was seconded to the U.S. State Department to work in the Office of the Deputy Secretary on the Leadership Team that prepared the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. Before this he served in several different roles including Mission Director in Russia and in Afghanistan (2006-07), USAID Representative to Mongolia, and was the first Director of the new Regional Development Mission/Asia, where he oversaw programs in Burma, China, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
William Hammink most recently served as the ABA ROLI Country Director for Libya and Tunisia, based in Tunis, Tunisia, from May 2018 to May 2019. Mr. Hammink retired from USAID as a Career Minister in September 2017 with 36 years of experience, including as USAID Mission Director in Afghanistan, India, Sudan and Ethiopia, and Assistant to the Administrator for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mr. Hammink served in nine countries, including Afghanistan, India, Sudan, Ethiopia, Russia, West Bank/Gaza, Madagascar, Senegal and Swaziland.
Moderator:
Hilda M. "Bambi" Arellano was the Director of the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI) at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School from 2014 to 2016 following her retirement from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Her last assignment for USAID was as the Senior Development Advisor at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute. In August 2013 Ms. Arellano returned from Afghanistan where she served at U.S. Embassy Kabul as the Coordinating Director for Development and Economic Affairs. For this position she held Ambassadorial rank. Before joining Embassy Kabul in 2012, she served as Counselor at USAID in Washington DC, and prior to that as Mission Director in Egypt, Iraq, Peru, Regional Center - Budapest, and Ecuador. Ms. Arellano joined USAID in 1987 and her first assignments were to Guatemala, Bolivia and Ecuador. She also served as Deputy Mission Director in Guatemala and Bolivia.
This event is co-hosted by DACOR & UAA.
Event Date:
2/10/2020
Event Time:
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Eastern
Location:
DACOR Bacon House 1801 F Street, NW Washington, DC 20006 UNITED STATES
