Ambassador Pamela L. Spratlen is a diplomat, mentor, public speaker, and leader who served for 30 years in the U.S. Department of State, rising to be a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Ms. Spratlen spent 10 years in Central Asia, of which she served eight as U.S. Ambassador, first to Kyrgyzstan (2011-14) and then to Uzbekistan (2015-18).

Ms. Spratlen graduated from Wellesley College and holds master’s degrees from the Army War College and the Goldman School of Public Policy at U.C. Berkeley.  Ms. Spratlen speaks French, Russian and Spanish and has received numerous awards.

Gabriel Escobar is the Deputy Assistant Secretary overseeing policy towards the countries of the Western Balkans and the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy. Previously, he served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy Belgrade. His leadership positions in the Department of State include Economic Minister Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Coordinator for Cuban Affairs in the Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2017-2018, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia 2014-2017, Consul General at the U.S. Consulate General in Peshawar, Pakistan 2013-2014, and Team Leader of the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kirkuk, Iraq 2009-2010.

A career diplomat, he has been awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award six times and the Meritorious Honor Award once. He has also been awarded the Department of State’s Expeditionary Service Award and the Department of the Army Superior Civilian Service Award.  Gabriel is a graduate of Columbia University in New York and Cathedral High School in El Paso, Texas. He speaks Spanish, Russian, Italian, Serbian, Croatian, Czech, and Portuguese.

Katherine Hadda is Senior Fellow at the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she advances U.S.-India sub-national understanding and cooperation.  She also serves as advisor to the Safe Water Network.  A prior FSO, Katherine was U.S. Consul General in Hyderabad U.S. from 2016-19, overseeing one of the busiest U.S. visa operations in the world and supporting over 130 U.S. companies based in the region. Earlier postings during Katherine’s three-decade diplomatic career include Italy, Afghanistan, New Zealand, the UK, Taiwan and China, as well as the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, and U.S. Congress.

Lisa Povolni is a career diplomat currently serving as Director of Orientation at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI).  Her overseas assignments include Rangoon, Burma; Shenyang, China; Beijing, China; and Mexico City, Mexico, as well as temporary duty in Port-au-Prince, Haiti immediately after the 2010 earthquake.  Her previous domestic assignments include Director of Executive Development and Deputy Director of Management Team Training at FSI.  Ms. Povolni graduated from Wellesley College and earned a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University and a Master of Clinical Social Work with a focus in trauma from Boston University. She is a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation, as well as the recipient of several State Department Superior and Meritorious Honor awards.  She speaks Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

Greg Starr is a retired senior United States Foreign Service Officer with a specialized career in the field of diplomatic security.  He served primarily at the US Department of State (33 years), ultimately serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security (2013-2017).  In this position he was the senior officer in the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service, and advisor for security and law enforcement matters to the Secretary of State. He testified multiple times before Senate and Congressional Committees on the Benghazi incident and developed policy and procedures to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

From 2009 to 2013 Mr. Starr served as Under Secretary General for Safety and Security at the United Nations, reporting to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He was the senior official of the UN Security Management System, overseeing the formulation of security policies and the implementation of programs to ensure the operations of UN political, humanitarian, and relief activities were conducted in as secure an environment as possible around the globe.

During his career he also served as DS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Countermeasure, and then Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director of the Diplomatic Security Service, leading a force of Special Agents, Diplomatic Couriers, Security Engineering Officers, Security Technical Specialists, General Service staff, and other specialists. (March 2007 – May 2009)

Mr. Starr served in multiple domestic and foreign assignments, including tours abroad as a Regional Security Officer in Israel, Tunisia, Senegal, and Kinshasa, Zaire (presently the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

After 34 years as a career Foreign Service and Senior Foreign Service officer, Krishna R. Urs retired in 2021.  Mr. Urs served as the United States Ambassador to Peru from 2017 until 2020. He also served overseas as Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassies in Spain, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic: other tours include Nicaragua, Bangladesh, and Mexico.  In Washington, D.C. at the Department of State, Mr. Urs served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Affairs and Chief U.S. Government Aviation Negotiator in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs and as Director of the Office of Economic Policy and Summit Coordination in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.  Since retiring, Mr. Urs has taught as an Adjunct Lecturer at American University.  Mr. Urs is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he studied Latin American politics and economics. He earned a master’s degree in economics at the University of Texas.  He speaks Spanish and Hindi.