Enjoy a delicious buffet, including vegetarian and gluten free options. Self-serve coffee & tea included. Wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Anthony "Bud" Rock serves as Principal of Global Water 2020, a two-year advocacy and facilitation initiative designed to accelerate progress toward water access and security for all people in developing countries. At this event, he will describe his organization’s recent efforts to bring water to the people of Gaza (and the West Bank) in the face of rapidly diminishing resources and the near elimination of U.S. government assistance. Drawing on his work with local NGO’s in the region, he will also offer perspectives that reach beyond the politics to the challenges and resilience of average Palestinians, and the perceptions of their closest neighbors in Israel.
Prior to joining Global Water 2020, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC). Earlier, Mr. Rock held the position of Vice President for Global Engagement at Arizona State University (ASU). Additionally, he had a three-decade career in U.S. government service. His diplomatic service included appointment as acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for oceans, environment, science, technology, and health. He served abroad as Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, Health, and Non-Proliferation Affairs at Embassy Paris and in the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels. Holding the same portfolio in Embassy Tel Aviv, he also served as the first technical advisor to the President’s Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, leading negotiations on regional water management. Additional assignments in Washington, D.C. included Director of Middle East Trade Affairs.
All members of DACOR are invited to attend the 2019 Annual Members' Meeting. Business to be conducted includes committee reports, President and Executive Director reports, board election results.
Registration is not required for this event. more info...
A delicious lunch with the choice of the special of the week or a vegetarian option. The meal also includes dessert, coffee/tea and House wine. Premium wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Enjoy a delicious buffet, including vegetarian and gluten free options. Self-serve coffee & tea included. Wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Author and Foreign Service spouse Margaret Sullivan will discuss and read from her new memoir, Fragments from a Mobile Life. Starting in pre-World War II China, ending in present day Virginia, and girdling the equator (Burma, India, Malaya, Nigeria, Indonesia, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Singapore) Sullivan's mobile life has been lived in evolving fragments of time and place. Rooted in family, her experience spans changes in the post-colonial world and women’s lives, told in short, lively stories, some first published as columns in the Huffington Post and articles in the Foreign Service Journal. An appropriately themed program the same week as Foreign Affairs Day, the homecoming event for retired Foreign and Civil Service, Sullivan’s story will focus on a trailing spouse’s story of life in the Foreign Service.
Writer, artist and public educator Margaret Sullivan was born in China and has lived and worked in Asia and Africa as well as the U.S. Her column, A Grandmother on…, appears in the Huffington Post. Her publications include the award-winning book, "Can Survive, La” Cottage Industries in High-rise Singapore (1985; 1992) and a children’s book, The Philippines: Crossroads of the Pacific (1998). She was active in addressing issues of change of roles for wives of U.S. FSOs and was Associate Director of the Asia Society’s Washington Center. Her paintings and photographs have been exhibited in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sierra Leone and D.C.
Books will be available for purchase; cash and checks only. more info...
Come to exchange views and analysis of significant current events, foreign and domestic. Some weeks, a pre-chosen topic will be discussed after an initiator launches the discussion with a brief (~5 minutes) framing of a topic, after which free-wheeling discussion follows. Other weeks, the discussion will revolve around what currently piques attendees’ interests. more info...
A delicious lunch with the choice of the special of the week or a vegetarian option. The meal also includes dessert, coffee/tea and House wine. Premium wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Join us in Celebrating the 95th Anniversary of the Foreign Service and Support Our Historic House!
DACOR's annual Spring Reception is a great time to catch up with old colleagues and friends and meet new ones, all while enjoying delicious food and drinks and live music. The night before Foreign Affairs Day, both members and non-members are invited to this premier social event. more info...
DACOR is proud to sponsor the State Department's annual homecoming event. Inaugurated as "Foreign Service Day" in 1965 to honor and inform Department of State Foreign Service retirees, Foreign Affairs Day was expanded and renamed in 2001 to include Department Civil Service Employees. Attendees include retired Civil Service and Foreign Service generalists and specialists from the Department, as well as retired Foreign Service officers from other foreign affairs agencies. In addition to remarks by senior State Department officials, Foreign Affairs Day includes the AFSA Memorial Ceremony honoring personnel who have died serving abroad under circumstances distinctive to the Foreign Service. There will also be two sessions of off-the-record seminars on foreign policy issues and a luncheon.
Reservations for the luncheon ($60 per person) are on a first-come, first-served basis. Payment by personal check, made payable to Foreign Affairs Day, must accompany reservation. The lunch sells out very quickly so mail in your RSVP card and payment as soon as possible.
Foreign Affairs Day Invitations go out in early March. Retirees who have not attended Foreign Affairs Day recently may request an invitation by emailing the following information to foreignaffairsday@state.gov: first and last name, date of birth, retirement date, foreign affairs agency from which you retired, mailing address, phone number, and email address. more info...
Interested in keeping up with your French? Join the French Conversation Group!
Formed to help French-speaking members maintain their proficiency, the group meets monthly for lunchtime conversation involving foreign relations, diplomatic history, cultural activities, travel, and - of course! - French food and wine.
The DACOR cash bar opens at 12 noon and the group moves to a reserved table at Members' Buffet Lunch at 12:30 pm. Only French is spoken during lunch. more info...
Enjoy a delicious buffet, including vegetarian and gluten free options. Self-serve coffee & tea included. Wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
DACOR members are welcome to meet with the new DCMs and Principal Officers before they depart for their new assignments. This is a wonderful opportunity to talk to experienced FSOs about their careers. more info...
Come to exchange views and analysis of significant current events, foreign and domestic. Some weeks, a pre-chosen topic will be discussed after an initiator launches the discussion with a brief (~5 minutes) framing of a topic, after which free-wheeling discussion follows. Other weeks, the discussion will revolve around what currently piques attendees’ interests. more info...
A delicious lunch with the choice of the special of the week or a vegetarian option. The meal also includes dessert, coffee/tea and House wine. Premium wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Ms. Doris Meissner, former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), is a Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), where she directs the Institute’s U.S. immigration policy work. Ms. Meissner will talk about how the Vietnamese refugee situation was understood and handled and the key actors, and how/why those considerations have changed in the ensuing years to the point today where the U.S. has all but shut down one of the most compelling refugee emergencies in the world. She will suggest what she thinks has happened and why and what is being lost in the pullback we're seeing.
From 1993-2000, Ms. Meissner served in the Clinton administration as Commissioner of the INS, then a bureau in the U.S. Department of Justice. She first joined the Justice Department in 1973 as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the Attorney General. She served in various senior policy posts until 1981, when she became Acting Commissioner of the INS and then Executive Associate Commissioner, the third-ranking post in the agency. In 1986, she joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a Senior Associate. Ms. Meissner created the Endowment's Immigration Policy Project, which evolved into the MPI in 2001.
This program is in remembrance of Ambassador Robert Hopkins Miller. more info...
Enjoy a delicious buffet, including vegetarian and gluten free options. Self-serve coffee & tea included. Wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Poet Gretchen Primack has been teaching for college programs in state prisons for many years. Her third collection, Visiting Days (Willow Books 2019), is “set” in an imaginary maximum-security men's prison; each poem is in the voice of someone incarcerated or visiting there. For this program, Ms. Primack will read from the collection and discuss the issues surrounding incarceration. Says D.C.-area poet and editor Truth Thomas, “In writing about the mass incarcerated skeletons in America’s closet, Primack unapologetically affirms the fact of their existence and their humanity. This courageous work is authentic in the feel of its persona poems, masterful in its balance of poetic impressionism and realism.”
Ms. Primack is the author of two other collections: Kind (Post-Traumatic Press) and Doris’ Red Spaces (Mayapple Press). She also co-wrote, with Jenny Brown, The Lucky Ones (Penguin Avery). Her poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, FIELD, Ploughshares, Poet Lore, The Massachusetts Review, and other journals and anthologies. Ms. Primack has administrated and taught with college programs in prison for many years, in addition to teaching private workshops. She also moonlights as a bookseller at an independent bookstore in Woodstock, New York. more info...
Come to exchange views and analysis of significant current events, foreign and domestic. Some weeks, a pre-chosen topic will be discussed after an initiator launches the discussion with a brief (~5 minutes) framing of a topic, after which free-wheeling discussion follows. Other weeks, the discussion will revolve around what currently piques attendees’ interests. more info...
Dr. Kristin Lord (IREX) and Dr. George Ingram (Brookings) have interviewed 80 development experts — leaders from NGOs, think tanks, business and government — on how development is different today, for the practice and for their own organizations, and what they anticipate for the future. The findings are now being analyzed and the report written, with publication expected in May.
Dr. Ingram is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. His professional career has spanned working in the Congress, the executive branch, and the non-profit sector. He is chair emeritus of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network. He served as a senior staff member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, vice president of Citizens Democracy Corps, principal deputy assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and in several positions at the Academy for Educational Development, including interim president and chief executive officer.
Dr. Lord is President and CEO of the nonprofit global education and development organization, IREX. She has served previously as the Acting President and Executive Vice President of the United States Institute of Peace, Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security, resident and visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution, senior policy advisor at the State Department, and associate dean and faculty member at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. more info...
If you have an interest in Africa or want to learn more, join DACOR members at the monthly Africa Discussion Group. Discussions are organized around theme, country, region or on a selected speaker’s interests. more info...
Enjoy a delicious buffet, including vegetarian and gluten free options. Self-serve coffee & tea included. Wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
DACOR members are welcome to meet with members of the 198th A-100 Class as well as those from the concurrent Specialist Class. Share your experiences with these new officers before they head off to their first postings. more info...
Come to exchange views and analysis of significant current events, foreign and domestic. Some weeks, a pre-chosen topic will be discussed after an initiator launches the discussion with a brief (~5 minutes) framing of a topic, after which free-wheeling discussion follows. Other weeks, the discussion will revolve around what currently piques attendees’ interests. more info...
A delicious lunch with the choice of the special of the week or a vegetarian option. The meal also includes dessert, coffee/tea and House wine. Premium wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Enjoy a delicious buffet, including vegetarian and gluten free options. Self-serve coffee & tea included. Wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
In 1938, with the Great Depression still gripping much of the nation and Adolf Hitler named TIME’s Man of the Year, Harvard University launched a long-term study of 268 Harvard sophomores to establish a baseline for medicine to provide maximally healthy human development. President John F. Kennedy was one of the original cohort, and so was Washington Post Editor Benjamin C. Bradlee. What does the study tell us about health, longevity, life satisfaction, and our roles for our families?
David Jonathan Cohen is working on a book about life choices that draws on the study and his interview with its director. He was executive director of a coalition of national unions that represented professional and technical people and has written for many publications, including The Washington Post and Harvard Magazine. His book project has led to his presentations to United Way Worldwide, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at American University, and other groups. more info...
Come to exchange views and analysis of significant current events, foreign and domestic. Some weeks, a pre-chosen topic will be discussed after an initiator launches the discussion with a brief (~5 minutes) framing of a topic, after which free-wheeling discussion follows. Other weeks, the discussion will revolve around what currently piques attendees’ interests. more info...
A delicious lunch with the choice of the special of the week or a vegetarian option. The meal also includes dessert, coffee/tea and House wine. Premium wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
We are pleased to welcome Rev. Dr. Robert Schenck to the May 30th Salon.
Religion has been a powerful force in human history, and the mix of religion and politics a recurring source of contention and conflict. On the one hand, religious conviction has spearheaded efforts in the cause of peace and justice, but then religious fanaticism and division have also spilled over into hatred and violence.
Discussion Questions:
Does the “wall of separation between Church and State” mean that religion has no role to play in the public square. What influence respectively did the Enlightenment and religion play in the civic culture and political institutions of the United States? Is the United States becoming more secular? Is that a good thing or not?
Does the alignment of religion and partisan politics benefit or harm religious groups and political parties?
Can religion and inter-faith dialogue work to advance peace in troubled areas of the world where sectarian conflict and violence rage?
The Rev. Dr. Rob Schenck is an ordained Evangelical minister and President of The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute, located in Washington, DC. A leader among American Evangelicals, Dr. Schenck served a 2-year term as Chairman of the Evangelical Church Alliance, America’s oldest association of independent Evangelical clergy.
Dr. Schenck holds a B.A. in Religion, M.A. in Christian Ministry, D.Min in Church and State, and is a senior fellow at the The Centre for the Study of Law and Public Policy at Oxford. He serves on numerous boards and committees, including the National Advisory Board on Community Engagement in the State Courts. His professional memberships include the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Academy of Religion, the Capitol Forum Club, and The University Club of Washington. Dr. Schenck is the subject of Abigail Disney’s Emmy-winning documentary examining Evangelicals and the gun culture, The Armor of Light. He is the author of Costly Grace, released in June 2018 by HarperCollins.
Dr. Schenck lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Cheryl, a psychotherapist in private practice.
Interested in keeping up with your French? Join the French Conversation Group!
Formed to help French-speaking members maintain their proficiency, the group meets monthly for lunchtime conversation involving foreign relations, diplomatic history, cultural activities, travel, and - of course! - French food and wine.
The DACOR cash bar opens at 12 noon and the group moves to a reserved table at Members' Buffet Lunch at 12:30 pm. Only French is spoken during lunch. more info...
Enjoy a delicious buffet, including vegetarian and gluten free options. Self-serve coffee & tea included. Wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Come to exchange views and analysis of significant current events, foreign and domestic. Some weeks, a pre-chosen topic will be discussed after an initiator launches the discussion with a brief (~5 minutes) framing of a topic, after which free-wheeling discussion follows. Other weeks, the discussion will revolve around what currently piques attendees’ interests. more info...
A delicious lunch with the choice of the special of the week or a vegetarian option. The meal also includes dessert, coffee/tea and House wine. Premium wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Enjoy a delicious buffet, including vegetarian and gluten free options. Self-serve coffee & tea included. Wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Come to exchange views and analysis of significant current events, foreign and domestic. Some weeks, a pre-chosen topic will be discussed after an initiator launches the discussion with a brief (~5 minutes) framing of a topic, after which free-wheeling discussion follows. Other weeks, the discussion will revolve around what currently piques attendees’ interests. more info...
A delicious lunch with the choice of the special of the week or a vegetarian option. The meal also includes dessert, coffee/tea and House wine. Premium wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
If you have an interest in Africa or want to learn more, join DACOR members at the monthly Africa Discussion Group. Discussions are organized around theme, country, region or on a selected speaker’s interests. more info...
Enjoy a delicious buffet, including vegetarian and gluten free options. Self-serve coffee & tea included. Wine, beer and soft drinks are available for purchase at the table. more info...
Retired FSO Judith Heimann will tell how she came to research and write the true story of how young scientists in a public Belgian university engaged in basic research came to make history by discovering what one Nobel laureate describes as "probably the greatest advance in agricultural biotechnology since the invention of agriculture".
One of the first Foreign Service "tandem" spouses, Heimann had barely retired when she began writing non-fiction books. Two of her earlier books were made into critically acclaimed tv documentaries that she helped write.
This is Heimann's fourth book, and her first on a scientific subject. It draws on her intensive interviews of more than two dozen scientists from a half dozen countries involved in this historic discovery. She sees this book as presenting, in a jargon-free prose, the actual science, as opposed to the rash of anti-science, on this subject. By describing the joy these young scientists — often the first of their families with a higher education — had working together, she also hopes to encourage a new generation of young people to look for careers in the wide open field of the life sciences. more info...
DACOR members are welcome to meet with the new DCMs and Principal Officers before they depart for their new assignments. This is a wonderful opportunity to talk to experienced FSOs about their careers. more info...
Come to exchange views and analysis of significant current events, foreign and domestic. Some weeks, a pre-chosen topic will be discussed after an initiator launches the discussion with a brief (~5 minutes) framing of a topic, after which free-wheeling discussion follows. Other weeks, the discussion will revolve around what currently piques attendees’ interests. more info...
What the Future of Development Holds Kristin Lord (IREX) and George Ingram (Brookings) have interviewed 80 development experts -- leaders from NGOs, think tanks, business, government -- on how development is different today, for the practice and for their own organization, and what they anticipate for the future. The findings are now being analyzed and the report written, with publication expected before this DDD event at DACOR.
Global development is fraught with disruption. Meanwhile, the practice of development is changing because of both success and stubborn challenges. On the success side, poverty has been cut in half in a generation (from 2006 to 2016, infant death rates fell from 43.4 to 30.5 per 1000 live births and the percentage of girls in school rose from 83.8% to 89.3%), democratic governance has exploded in the last three decades, and millions of underserved citizens now have access to banking and information thanks to the internet and access to mobile phones. However, we also are witnessing persistent conflict and fragility that undermines development, entrenched corruption that saps valuable resources and undermines public trust, and encroaching authoritarianism that puts development goals at risk. It is therefore is timely to look at where the practice of development may be headed. What are the challenges? How are the actors – both funders and organizations that carry out development projects – adjusting to address them?
Dr. George Ingram is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. His professional career has spanned working in the Congress, the executive branch, and the non-profit sector. He is chair emeritus of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network. He served as a senior staff member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, vice president of Citizens Democracy Corps, principal deputy assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and in several positions at the Academy for Educational Development, including interim president and chief executive officer.
Join us for a special performance-based Newberry program. Opera singer Charlotte Jackson will be singing operatic selections in 5+ languages from cultures across the world to showcase the commonality of human emotion and experience, as well as exploring the cultures from which the music originates. The selections were written anywhere from the 16th-century to the last decade.
NYC- based soprano Charlotte Jackson is excited to return to Miami Music Fest this summer to perform the role of Zina in Nico Muhly's Dark Sisters. Last spring, Charlotte made her professional debut with MassOpera as Laurentia in The Beautiful Bridegroom. After graduating with her Master of Music and Professional Studies Certificate from The Boston Conservatory, Charlotte performed with the Janeic Opera Company at Brevard Music Center, performed with Hillyer Festival Orchestra, and with Guerrilla Opera as the Captain of the Guard in their world premiere of Andy Vores' Chrononhotonthologos. In 2017 in Boston, Charlotte performed the role of Anna Reich in Nicolai's Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor with The Boston Conservatory, performed John Cage’s songbooks for Boston Sculptors Gallery, and performed multiple solo recitals in both Boston and D.C. Charlotte has worked in masterclasses with Anthony Dean Griffey, Christine Goerke, Nathan Gunn, and Frederica von Stade
Ms. Jackson will be accompanied by pianist Aaron Thacker.
