“I think that, you know, the skills that you acquire in a lot of other fields are relevant to what we do in management. I come from a pretty diverse background. I was in the Marine Corps. I was in Sales and Marketing both for soft drinks and wine beverages, and every day I feel as if I’m selling somebody something.”

“We’re the face of America to the world. We value differences. We value different cultures. We want to show how our diversity is our strength. You can’t help but feel pride for what you do. I can’t wait until I have grandkids and tell them stories about what I used to do.”

“Our job was essentially to re-engineer this airport to make it an evacuation center to marshal the volunteers from the embassy to do everything from making sandwiches to donating diapers. And our job was to get these people, many of whom had been traumatized; we had rape victims, people who had suffered horrible violence looking to us to be their sort of conduit to safety.”

“One of the best things I like about management work is, we are the platform. Nothing happens on the policy side unless management officers get the buildings out there, hire the people, make sure you get the right people for the ambassador, make sure that you’re getting everyone paid and that you’re getting them paid as well as they can be paid.”

“I went up to see the king. Now I was forbidden to touch him, so I didn’t shake hands or anything, but I made a little speech. ‘I’m proud to be here on behalf of the United States government, and return this important and sacred object to you.'”

“I think a lot of times, people sit on the sidelines and are frustrated with the way the world is going or the directions we’re going as a country or the different policies we have, and this career gives you the ability to make a real difference, and you can touch people’s lives.”

“I went into the middle of what seemed to be thousands of people with cameras clicking, tape recorders whirring, people with pen and pencils, just flying, and a million questions at the same time. And I just thought, okay, this is a situation where I can really make or break, and I thought this is where being a Foreign Service officer really makes such a difference, and that you can be cast into situations where you never would have expected to be in the middle of.”