EVENT:        World Affairs Council of the Florida Palm Beaches

                       Distinguished Speakers Series

SPEAKER:     Ambassador Maura Harty
 

                 Former U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay and Assistant Secretary of State for

                 Consular  Affairs

TOPIC:         American Diplomacy: Why the State Department & Foreign Affairs Budgets Matter

Ambassador Harty will share her decades of knowledge and experience concerning how the State Department and its branches integrate with strategic decision making and will help evaluate and dissect our foreign policy budget.

Ambassador Harty will speak as part of a program of The American Academy of Diplomacy (AAD) to discuss the crisis of American diplomatic capacity and how to address it. She will tell why the U.S. Department of State matters, how things work, and the foreign affairs budget which affects our foreign policy.

DATE:             Thursday, September 23, 2010

TIME:             Reception - 6:00 p.m.

                       Presentation - 6:30 p.m.

LOCATION:    Northwood University Turner Education Building Auditorium

2600 North Military Trail

West Palm Beach, FL  33409

SPEAKER:      Maura Harty, United States Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, from November 21, 2002 to February 29, 2008, was a career member of the senior Foreign Service. She received her bachelor's degree at Georgetown University's  School of Foreign Service and began her career with the Department of State in 1981 as a vice-consul in Mexico City, Mexico.  Harty went on to serve several tours in Washington, DC and also served abroad at the U.S. Embassies in Bogotá, Colombia, and Madrid, Spain, before being appointed U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay from 1997 to 1999. During her tenure as Assistant Secretary, Harty oversaw the introduction of new security regulations in response to the September 11, 2001

attacks, as well as the identification & evacuation of American citizens after the tsunami in Indonesia & the war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006. In her position, she served as primary liaison within the Department of State to the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection and Citizenship & Immigration Services on security and visa issues. 

ORGANIZER:   The World Affairs Council of the Florida Palm Beaches is a membership-based organization that creates forums for discussion of critical world issues.  Founded in 2003 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan, education organization, its mission is to promote under-standing of the world - the people, the politics, the economies and the cultures - and to enhance the ability of our citizens to participate in the global community and to better understand world events through people-to-people diplomacy, distinguished speakers and educational outreach programs.

World Affairs Council of the Florida Palm Beaches ? 2806 Black Oak Way ? Boynton Beach, Florida 33436 561.236.1825 ? www.worldaffairsflorida.org