Professional Development Series

Thinking about switching sectors or finding a new career path? What should you consider before you jump? How do you leverage your connections and network to find your next position? Join us for a conversation on mid-career transitions and advancing your career in international affairs.

This event is co-sponsored with Women's Foreign Policy Group (WFPG) and the Robertson Foundation for Government. Registration is free for WIIS and WFPG members. If you have any questions, please contact info@wiisglobal.org.

Monday, August 10th, 2020 | 1 to 2:15 PM EDT
Panel Discussion: 1:00 to 1:45 PM EDT
Breakout Sessions: 1:45 to 2:15 PM EDT

Barrie Freeman is the deputy and political director of the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office. Prior to her appointment in 2018, she served as the Chief of Staff for the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), and before that as the Mission's Political Affairs Director. Before joining the UN, she managed democracy and governance programs at NDI, first in Central and West Africa and then later in North Africa in the wake of the Arab Spring. Freeman spent 15 years with the State Department, working in Tunisia, Morocco, Lesotho, and Nigeria. In Washington, she served in the Office of the Inspector General and in the Office of African Analysis as the chief political analyst for Nigeria and other West African countries. While at the State Department, she earned the Department's Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards, as well as a Distinguished Analyst Award.

Reta Jo Lewis is a Senior Fellow and Director of Congressional Affairs at The German Marshall Fund. She joined GMF in 2015, as a Senior Resident Fellow with the Transatlantic Leadership Initiative Program. During the Obama Administration, she served as the State Department’s first Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs, where she focused on building peer-to-peer relationships between the Department, state and local officials, and their foreign counterpart, and was awarded the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award for her work. Previously, she was the Director of Business Outreach for the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team. Earlier in her career, she served as the Vice President and Counselor to the President at the US Chamber of Commerce, Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, Of Counsel at Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP, and as a Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton. In 2014, Lewis ran for mayor of DC. She began her career as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Wanida Lewis has directed programs and strategic partnerships for Environment360 in Accra, Ghana. Previously, she was a senior economic evaluation program analyst at the Department of State's Office of Global Women's Issues. Lewis completed a fellowship as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow working in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. During her fellowship, she founded Young, Gifted, & Brown, LLC, a pipeline program supporting young Ghanaian women and entrepreneurs in STEM. Lewis was named by New America as one of the thirty-five "Black American National Security in 2018, and Foreign Policy Next Generation Leaders" and is a 2019 Young Professionals in Foreign Policy "Gender Issues in Foreign Policy Fellow."

Wenchi Yu is the Head of Global Public Policy at VIPKid, an education technology platform company. In this role, she launched the social impact initiative and VIPTeach.org, a non-profit seed funded and incubated by VIPKid to promote equitable access to education through technology. She is a Nonresident Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and a life member of Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to VIPKid, Yu was the Head of Corporate Engagement for Goldman Sachs in Asia, where she led strategic philanthropy for stakeholder engagement and social impact in Asia. Before joining the private sector, she was a senior advisor on global women’s issues at the Department of State, and conducted research on rule of law and civil society development for the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. She began her career working for various nonprofit organizations on women’s rights, human trafficking, and immigrant issues.

Chantal de Jonge Oudraat has served as President of Women In International Security (WIIS) since February 2013. Prior to joining WIIS, she was the founding and executive director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) North America. Her previous positions include senior advisor to the US Institute of Peace Center for Gender and Peacebuilding; associate vice president and director of the USIP Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program; adjunct associate professor at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service; and senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins SAIS. Her areas of specialization include women, peace and security, international organizations, arms control and disarmament, and peacekeeping. She did her undergraduate studies at the University of Amsterdam and received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Paris II (Panthéon).

How can you job hunt and network from your living room? Join us for a virtual conversation with international affairs and human resources professionals on preparing for video interviews, informational interviews and how to tailor your job search. While open to everyone, this discussion is designed for recent graduates and young professionals.

Clarissa Balatan, Senior Human Resources Manager at World Resources Institute, has over 13 years of human resources and leadership experiences with the National Labor Relations Board, Owens Corning, and Lockheed Martin. She has held roles of increasing responsibility supporting talent management, diversity and inclusion, compensation, talent acquisition, HR information systems, workforce strategy, and labor relations. Clarissa holds a BA in human resources management from Michigan State University, and MBA and MS degrees in finance from Indiana University. She is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources and recently completed Georgetown’s Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate program. She speaks Mandarin and Spanish and volunteers at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC.

Alyssa Best is an independent career coach and a part-time career advisor at American University. She opened her practice in 2009 to support non-profit professionals. Since then, she has expanded her focus to serve clients undergoing career transitions in diverse industries and sectors, including foreign policy. At AU, she advises students and alumni and offers guidance on resume writing and interviewing. Previously, Alyssa worked in non-profit program management and advocacy at The OpEd Project, Wider Opportunities for Women, Center for Progressive Leadership, and Rutgers Institute for Women's Leadership. She is passionate about helping individuals identify their dream careers and providing them with the tools to achieve their goals. She has a certificate in personal development coaching and an MA in Women’s and Gender Studies from Rutgers.

Nadia Crevecoeur is a Government & Public Services Analyst at Deloitte Consulting. She currently supports USAID’s Workforce Transformation project, and consults pro-bono for non-profits in the DC area. Previously, Nadia served as the Senior Program Assistant at Women In International Security (WIIS), worked in the special victim's unit of the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, and researched measuring UN peacekeeping success with the Global Governance Institute in Brussels. Nadia received a BA from the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs with a concentration in Conflict Resolution.

Kim Kahnhauser Freeman is the executive director of the Women's Foreign Policy Group, a non-profit organization which promotes women’s leadership and amplifies their voices in international affairs. Since joining the WFPG team in 2006, she has held roles of increasing responsibility supporting the organization’s global issues programs, membership outreach, mentoring initiatives, and strategic development. Previously, Kim was a Fulbright teaching fellow in Tirol, Austria, and researched public housing for the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service in DC. Kim was a 2011 State Department Young Turkey/Young America Fellow, and holds a BS in International Politics from Georgetown and an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy.

Our third webinar event entitled Federal Service: Navigating applications and landing your first job will be held on July 16th. There will be a panel from 1:00 - 1:45 PM EDT followed by breakout sessions from 1:45 - 2:15 PM EDT. What does a career in federal international affairs look like and what does the application process entail? Learn about different pathways to government service, how to decipher usajob.gov, and what opportunities exist both in Washington and overseas in a variety of government agencies.

This event is co-sponsored with Women's Foreign Policy Group (WFPG) and the Robertson Foundation for Government. Registration is free for WIIS and WFPG members. WIIS members can access the code for free registration on the member homepage. If you have any questions, please contact info@wiisglobal.org.

Register here. 

Jennifer Hawkins is a Senior Women, Peace, and Security Advisor in USAID's Bureau of Conflict, Prevention, and Stabilization (CPS). She joined USAID in 2014 as a Democracy Fellow. Prior to joining USAID, Jennifer served as a Gender and Policy Advisor at the State Department's Bureau of Conflict Stabilization Operations, where she led the implementation of the Bureau's Gender Policy and the National Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. In 2013, she served as the first US secondee to Justice Rapid Response, an intergovernmental organization in Geneva, where she worked to increase multilateral diplomacy on atrocity prevention and develop a global "rapid response" capacity within Rule of Law and Sexual Gender-Based Violence. During her five years at the State Department, she also served in the Bureau of West African Affairs as Desk Officer for Burkina Faso and Niger, and as the Special Assistant in the Bureau of African Affairs. Jennifer holds a BS from Syracuse and a MSW, with a concentration in children and policy, from Howard, and is currently a Doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California.

Erin McGown joined the Department of Justice in March as a Program Analyst on the Africa team in the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training (OPDAT). Before joining DoJ, Erin served in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Georgia, where she advised a small NGO focused on local democracy development; authored, implemented, and closed out a Let Girls Learn grant for a Peace Corps-led camp for youth; and designed and implemented trainings related to gender equality. Erin also served as a Communications and Outreach Program Specialist at USAID, which she joined as an intern. She also interned at the Department of State's Office of UN Political Affairs, the German Marshall Fund and the Women's Foreign Policy Group. Prior to moving to DC, she worked for the City of Boise Mayor’s Office and South Sound YMCA in Olympia, Washington. Erin holds a Masters in International Affairs at the George Washington University’s Elliott School and a BA from the University of Idaho in International Studies and German.

Lindsay Rodman is Executive Director of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS). She began her career as an associate at Arnold & Porter LLP. Lindsay then joined the Marine Corps and served as a judge advocate for eight years, including deployment to Afghanistan, serving as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as a White House Fellow at the National Security Council. After transitioning into the Reserves, Lindsay was a political appointee in the Pentagon, serving first as the Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness and then as the Senior Advisor, International Humanitarian Policy in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Prior to joining LCWINS, Lindsay was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in Canada and worked at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Lindsay remains an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Kennedy School, and Duke.

Sharon Swabb is a Career Coach at George Washington University’s Elliott School, where she manages GW's mentorship program with USIP and the Elliott School's graduate-level, cross-cultural exchange program with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to arriving at GW, Sharon served as an Associate Director in the White House Presidential Personnel Office, where she contributed to the recruitment, placement, and retention of political appointees at national security agencies. Previously, she was a Press Assistant in the Office of Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. Before her work in the Federal Government, she was a research fellow at GovLoop, served as a program assistant for the DC semester programs of the University of Georgia and NYU, was a volunteer staff member for Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. Sharon is a member of the Robertson Foundation for Government. She holds a BA in International Affairs and Spanish from the University of Georgia and a Master’s in Pacific International Affairs from UC San Diego.

Kim Kahnhauser Freeman is the executive director of the Women's Foreign Policy Group, a non-profit organization which promotes women’s leadership and amplifies their voices in international affairs. Since joining the WFPG team in 2006, she has held roles of increasing responsibility supporting the organization’s global issues programs, membership outreach, mentoring initiatives, and strategic development. Previously, Kim was a Fulbright teaching fellow in Tirol, Austria, and researched public housing for the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service in DC. Kim was a 2011 State Department Young Turkey/Young America Fellow, and holds a BS in International Politics from Georgetown and an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy.