10/4/2024
12:00 PM - 2:15 PM EST


Location: DACOR Bacon House OR Online, 1801 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006

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 - 2:15 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).

When America’s first diplomat, Benjamin Franklin, was sent to Paris in 1776 to seek French support in the Colonies’ fight for independence, he had to fend for himself; including finding a place to live and work. 
 
For over a century afterward, Franklin’s entrepreneurialism was the norm for America's envoys. But as the nation’s power, wealth and influence grew, Congress empowered the State Department to acquire a large portfolio of embassies, consulates and residences to strengthen our diplomacy. Hundreds of these properties are culturally, historically or architecturally important. Dozens are located in World Heritage sites.
 
Join Glyn T. Davies, U.S. Ambassador (ret) and Andrea Cochrane Tracey, Fund to Conserve U.S. Diplomatic Treasures Abroad (Fund to Conserve) for a presentation exploring the stories behind some of America’s overseas marvels, including landmark buildings, priceless art and even an antique boat and the important role these buildings and collections play in cultural diplomacy. 

Glyn Davies is Special Advisor to the State Department’s Office of Cultural Heritage, part of the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations. He served as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for 38 years in Australia, Africa, Europe, Asia, and in Washington D.C. at the State Department and White House. In key early assignments, he  served as Special Assistant to Secretary of State George Shultz, Political-Military Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Paris during the Fall of the Berlin Wall and First Gulf War, Director of the State Department Operations Center, State Department Deputy Spokesman, Executive Secretary of the National Security Council Staff, and Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in London during the 9/11 attacks and the Second Gulf War. His ambassadorial appointments included U.S. Permanent Representative to United Nations Agencies in Vienna and Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand. Ambassador Davies earned a Bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and a Masters in National Security Strategy from the National War College.

Andrea Cochrane Tracey is Director of the Fund to Conserve U.S. Diplomatic Treasures Abroad. She has thirty years of diverse professional experience including Director, College Park Aviation Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate museum, in Maryland; Regional Museum Administrator of ten historic sites in two states for Historic New England; Preservation & Marketing Manager, Barba+Wheelock Architects in Maine, development director for a food bank in Fairfax County, Virginia; and Information Clearinghouse Manager, Partners for Sacred Places in Philadelphia. 
 
She served on conference planning committees for the Association of Preservation Technology International and the Vernacular Architecture Forum. She served as an adjunct instructor for the History Department at the University of New England. 
 
Ms. Tracey successfully completed leadership training with Smithsonian Affiliates and the National Trust for Historic Preservation as well as allyship training with Service Never Sleeps. She holds a Master of Science from the University of Pennsylvania in Historic Preservation and Museum Management and a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design and Historic Preservation from the University of North Carolina – Greensboro.