Date: Thursday, February 4
Time: 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. EST
Join us for a conversation with Foreign Service Officers Annika Betancourt and Mary Vargas. They will share insights from their Foreign Service careers, provide thoughts on diversity and inclusion, and offer their advice for emerging and aspiring foreign policy leaders.
The Diverse Diplomacy Leaders Speaker Series connects current and former career Civil and Foreign Service officers with those considering or entering careers in foreign policy. This event is brought to you as part of an Una Chapman Cox Foundation project on American Diplomacy and the Foreign Service.
Learn more about Diverse Diplomacy at diversediplomacy.com.
This event will have live closed captioning.
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Annika Betancourt
Annika Betancourt serves as Peru desk officer and is currently dual-hatted as Deputy Director for the Office of Andean Affairs. She recently concluded the CFR International Affairs Fellowship at the Brookings Institution focusing on U.S.-North Korea confidence-building measures. On the DPRK desk in Washington, DC, Annika played a critical role in the release of UVA student Otto Warmbier from North Korea. Annika joined the Foreign Service in 2011 and has also served in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Athens, Greece; and Kabul, Afghanistan. Annika has a B.A. from the University of Maryland and a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Mary Vargas
Mary Vargas joined the Foreign Service in 2008. She is serving as Trade and Investment Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City where she leads post’s engagement with the Government of Mexico on implementation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA). During a four year tour in Jerusalem, Mary developed policy recommendations for Gaza post-war reconstruction and designed technical assistance programs to improve West Bank water and energy infrastructure. She has also served as a Refugee Coordinator in Baghdad, Iraq; political officer in Karachi, Pakistan; and consular officer in Tijuana, Mexico. Mary has a B.A. from The George Washington University and an M.A. from the University of California in San Diego.