State Department to Host 100 Diversity Leaders to Strategize

[admin]

State Department to Host 100 Diversity Leaders to Strategize and Partner on "Diversity, Inclusion and U.S. Foreign Policy"


Notice to the Press
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC

May 22, 2012





The Office of the Special Representative to Muslim Communities together with the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and the Office of Civil Rights, will host the first ever strategy session on Diversity, Inclusion and U.S. Foreign Policy. The U.S. Department of State will convene 100 top diversity leaders from the public and private sectors to focus on the impact of diverse professional environments and the way in which the diversity and inclusion agenda informs U.S. foreign policy.
The program opens promptly at 8:30 a.m. on June 7 in the Marshall Center with opening remarks from Senator Ben Cardin (D/MD), Special Representative to Muslim Communities, Farah Pandith, and Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources at the Department of State. Presentations and working groups continue throughout the day until 4:30 p.m. Dr. Ernest Wilson III, Dean of the Annenberg School of Public Diplomacy, will offer the keynote address at 8:45 a.m. on “Why Diversity is ‘Mission Critical’ for the U.S.”
Participants will include U.S. government leaders from the White House, Congress, USAID, the Department of State, Peace Corps, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. Navy, and Chief Diversity Officers from leading U.S. corporations, educational institutions, and nonprofit and other organizations, including Merck, Citigroup, Wal-Mart, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, McDonald’s, Abercrombie & Fitch, GlaxoSmithKline, American Red Cross, United Way Worldwide, Harvard University, Cornell University, and many others. The International Society of Diversity and Inclusion Professionals and the Society for Human Resource Management are partners in this event.
(join the conversation at twitter hash tag #diusfp12)
The event is open to credentialed members of the media. Press should enter through the 21st
Street entrance.
PRESS CONTACTS:
Lora Berg
Office of the Special Representative to Muslim Communities
202-647-7954
berglj@state.gov
Evan Owen
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor
202-647-4747
owene@state.gov
Office of Press Relations
202-647-2492


PRN: 2012/818