The purpose of the Policy Council is to serve as a source of ideas for new activities the Foundation might undertake and to advise the Trustees about overall policies and the direction of the Foundation. The Policy Council and the Trustees meet twice per year, and the meetings provide a forum to discuss the future of US diplomacy and how to best support the Foreign Service. Over the last several decades, we are fortunate to have had an impressive roster of distinguished diplomats, business executives, and philanthropists on our Policy Council.
Charles Ray served 30 years in the Foreign Service (from 1982 to 2012), after completing a 20-year career in the U.S. Army. His Foreign Service assignments were Guangzhou and Shenyang, China; Chiang Mai, Thailand; PM bureau/ DCM in Freetown, Sierra Leone; Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; ambassador, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Diplomat in residence, University of Houston; deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/Missing Personnel; and ambassador, Zimbabwe.
He has a B.S. from Benedictine College, Atchison, KS; an M.S. from the University of Southern California; and an M.S. the National War College. He’s also a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, the Army War College’s Land Forces Commander Course, and the Defense Intelligence School’s Postgraduate Intelligence Course.
Julie Chung is currently the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, she served previously as Director for Japan in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and as Deputy Chief of Mission in Cambodia and Economic Counselor in Thailand. From 2009-2010 she served as the Chief of Staff for Transition in Baghdad coordinating civilian-military foreign assistance. While working on the Korea Desk in Washington, she traveled to Pyongyang multiple times to coordinate programs with the Korean Energy Development Organization. She also served in Bogota, Hanoi, Tokyo, and Guangzhou. She received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California San Diego and an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University. Julie is a member of the first cohort of the Pickering Fellows.
Stuart Jones was Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East Affairs Bureau in 2017. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in 2016 and US Ambassador to Iraq from 2014-2016 and as Ambassador to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from 2011-2014. Ambassador Jones has extensive experience in Iraq as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Baghdad, Governorate Coordinator in Al Anbar Province, and Country Director for Iraq at the National Security Council. Other overseas postings include Egypt, Turkey, El Salvador and Colombia. Ambassador Jones is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Alberto J. Mora is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. An attorney by profession, Mora has served in a variety of law firm, corporate, and government posts during the course of a career that has balanced private practice with extensive public service in law, diplomacy, and national security, including service as a Foreign Service Officer and as General Counsel of USIA, Navy, and Mars, International. Mora holds a BA and Honorary Doctorate from Swarthmore College and a JD from the University of Miami School of Law. Mora attended Harvard University as a 2014 Advanced Leadership Fellow. In 2006, Mora was awarded the John F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation’s Profile in Courage Award in recognition of his opposition, while in the Bush administration, to the cruel interrogation of detainees in the post-9/11 period.
Ambassador Patterson was the Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and North African Affairs at the Department of State (2013-2017). She served as Ambassador to Egypt (2011-2013), to Pakistan (2007-2010), to Colombia (2000-2003) and to El Salvador (1997-2000). She recently retired with the rank of Career Ambassador after more than four decades in the Foreign Service. Ambassador Patterson also served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, among other assignments. She is currently a senior fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale and a member of the Commission on National Defense Strategy.
Ambassador Glyn T. Davies was a Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State for 38 years, serving in Australia, Africa, Europe and Asia. He retired in November 2018 after three years as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand. His other assignments included Permanent Representative to United Nations Agencies in Vienna (2009-2011), Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in London (1999-03), Executive Secretary of the National Security Council Staff at the White House (1997-1999), and Deputy Spokesman of the Department of State (1995-1997). Amb. Davies has a Bachelor of Science degree in International Politics from Georgetown University as well as a Master of Science degree in National Security Strategy from the National Defense University in Washington D.C.
Jo Ellen Powell served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Resources (2016-2017), U.S. Ambassador to Mauritania (2010-2013), and Consul General in Frankfurt, Germany (2006-2009). She grew up in a Foreign Service family, living in Panama, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, India, Iran, and Laos.
Ms. Powell joined the Foreign Service in January 1980 and has served in Jordan, Lebanon, Italy, France, Australia, Germany, and Mauritania, in addition to domestic assignments including the Operations Center, the Bureaus of European Affairs and Western Hemisphere Affairs, the Bureau of Human Resources, and the Office of the Secretary, Executive Secretariat. Ms. Powell is a graduate of Centre College of Kentucky.
Kevin Whitaker is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, rank of Career Minister. He served for over five years as ambassador to Colombia, the longest-serving U.S. ambassador to that nation in a century. Prior to his ambassadorial service, he held a variety of senior positions in the Department, including deputy assistant secretary and deputy executive secretary. He has been awarded the Department’s Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards on multiple occasions.
Ambassador Whitaker is a graduate of the University of Virginia, and has three sons. His spouse Elizabeth had a distinguished career in the Foreign Service.
Anne Armstrong | February 1983 – November 1984 |
Luis Arreaga | December 2014 – May 2017 |
Diego C. Asencio | December 1988 – November 1991 |
Alfred Atherton, Jr. | December 1987 – November 1988 |
John Bass | January 2013 – November 2014 |
Shirley Temple Black | December 1984 – November 1987 |
Barbara Bodine | December 2015 – November 2018 |
Paul H. Boeker | November 1983 – November 1986 |
Stephen Bosworth | December 1987 – November 1990; December 1993 – November 1996 |
Margo Branscomb | December 2001 – November 2003 |
Charles W. Bray | May 1988 – November 1993 |
Carolyn Brehm | December 2012 – November 2016 |
Bridget Brink | December 2017 – July 2019 |
Prudence Bushnell | December 1993 – August 1996 |
Katherine H. Peterson Canavan | December 2001 – May 2005 |
Frances D. Cook | December 1988 – May 1991 |
Michael Dodman | December 2015 – November 2017 |
James Gadsden | December 2013-November 2017 |
John R. Galvin | December 2003 – November 2007 |
Charles A. Gillespie | December 2001 – November 2003 |
Louis W. Goodman | December 2003 – November 2007 |
Marc Grossman | May 2001 – November 2004; December 2006 – November 2010 |
Philip C. Habib | November 1984 – November 1986 |
Herb Hansell | December 1989 – November 1994 |
Arthur Hartman | December 1999 – November 2002 |
Maura A. Harty | December 2009 – November 2012 |
Tracey A. Jacobson | December 2010 – May 2012 |
L. Craig Johnstone | December 1996 – November 1999 |
A. Elizabeth Jones | November 2005 – November 2008 |
John H. Kelly | February 1983 – November 1985 |
Craig Kelly | December 2008 – November 2010 |
Kristie Kenney | May 2015 – September 2015 |
Faris A. Kirkland | December 2007 – November 2011 |
Peter Krogh | December 1995 – November 1998 |
Carol C. Laise | February 1983 – November 1985 |
Carol Lancaster | December 2011 – May 2014 |
Charles McC. Mathias | May 1988 – November 1991 |
Deborah McCarthy | December 2016 – November 2019 |
Kenton McDonald | December 1994 – August 1999 |
James H. Michel | December 1991 – November 1994 |
George E. Moose | December 1986 – November 1989; December 1991 – November 1992 |
Langhorne A. Motley | December 1985 – November 1988 |
Stephen Mull | December 2010 – November 2012 |
Henry R. Nau | July 2008 – November 2010 |
David Owen | December 2015 – November 2018 |
Mark R. Parris | December 1985 – November 1988 |
W. Robert Pearson | December 2006 – November 2009 |
Thomas R. Pickering | December 1997 – November 2000 |
Rozanne L. Ridgeway | December 1985 – November 1987 |
Charlie Ries | December 2011 – November 2014 |
Marcie Ries | December 2016 – November 2019 |
Carol Rodley | June 2012 – October 2015 |
William D. Rogers | November 1986 – November 1987 |
Peter Romero | December 1998 – November 2001 |
Fernando E. Rondon | December 1991 – November 1994 |
Carl T. Rowan | December 1985 – April 1988 |
J. Stapleton Roy | December 2002 – November 2006 |
Robin Sanders | December 1998 – November 2001 |
Teresita C. Schaffer | May 1989 – November 1992; December 1995 – November 1998 |
Enid C.B. Schoettle | December 1993 – November 1996 |
Patricia Hanigan Scroggs | December 2008-November 2011 |
Thomas A. Shannon, Jr. | December 2006 – May 2008 |
Walter J. Stoessel | February 1983 – November 1985 |
H. Patrick Swygert | December 1997 – November 2000 |
Frank X. Taylor | December 2010 – November 2013 |
Lawrence P. Taylor | December 1994 – November 1997 |
Harry K. Thomas, Jr. | December 2001 – November 2004 |
Linda Thomas-Greenfield | December 2004 – November 2007 |
Viron P. Vaky | December 1984 – November 1987 |
Dian Owen VanDeMark | December 1995 – November 1998 |
George C. Vest | December 1991 – November 1994 |
Alexander F. Watson | December 2002 – November 2006 |
Gretchen Gerwe Welch | December 2007 – November 2010 |
Betsy Whitaker | December 2013 – November 2016 |
John C. Whitehead | December 1988 – November 1994 |
Shannon M. Wilde | November 2007 – May 2008 |
Eddie N. Williams | December 1994 – November 1997 |
Larry Wood | June 2013 – January 2016 |
Casimir Yost | December 1998 – November 2002 |
Johnny Young | December 2010 – November 2013 |