People

Ambassador Robert Loftis is a retired Foreign Service Officer who served in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Oceania. Over the course of his 32-year career he worked on political military affairs, the United Nations, human rights and democracy promotion, international health, flood and other emergency relief, and conflict resolution and stabilization efforts. His last overseas posting was as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho: other recent assignments include Senior Advisor for Security Negotiations and Agreements (where he negotiated the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq), Senior Advisor for Avian and Pandemic Influenza, Deputy Commandant of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (National Defense University), and Acting Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. He taught International Negotiations, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Diplomatic Practice at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University from 2013-2020 and was Associate Dean for Studies. Loftis earned his B.A. in Political Science from Colorado State University.

Stavros Lambrinidis is the Ambassador of the European Union to the United States, as of March 1, 2019. From 2012 to February 2019, he served as the European Union Special Representative for Human Rights. In 2011, he was Foreign Affairs Minister of Greece. Between 2004 and 2011, he was twice elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP) with the Greek Social Democratic Party (PASOK). He served as Vice-President of the European Parliament (2009-11), Vice-President of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (2004-09), and Head of the PASOK Delegation (2005-11).

**Ambar Johnson** is the Program Director for LivableStreets, overseeing Vision Zero, Better Buses, and managing all aspects of the Emerald Network including advocacy, project oversight, and technical assistance. Ambar's work is guided by her belief that "transportation is freedom" to create abundant, safe and accessible infrastructure and options. Previously, she served as a transportation planner at VHB, leading technical analysis for a range of transit feasibility studies and comprehensive plans in the Southeast. Before that, she worked with the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and her neighbors to expand Relay Bike Share by using transportation as a tool for community building. Ambar is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology where she received her Bachelor of Science in History, Technology, and Society with a concentration in Civil Engineering.

Ambassador Audra Plepytė assumed the duties of Ambassador of Lithuania to the U.S. in May 2021. Prior to her appointment, she was Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the United Nations from 2017 to 2021. Ambassador Plepytė served as Director of the European Union Department at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2017. She was Lithuania’s Ambassador to Spain and the World Tourism Organization between 2010 and 2014, and the Director of the Ministry’s Personnel Department from 2009 to 2010. Her other assignments within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs included leading the International Missions and Conflict Prevention Division (2008-2009), serving as Deputy Representative to the Political and Security Committee within Lithuania’s Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels (2004-2008), and heading the Human Rights and Non-Governmental Organizations Division (2003-2004). Her service also included postings as Deputy Permanent Representative and Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Lithuania to the United Nations (1999-2002), Counsellor at Lithuania’s Embassy to the United States (1999), Head of the Foreign Ministry’s Northern European Division (1998-1999) and Advisor to the CBSS Commissioner for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (1997-1998). Ambassador Plepytė has BA and MA in Philosophy at Vilnius University. She also has a diploma from the Institute of International Relations at Vilnius University, as well as a certificate of Diplomatic studies at Oxford University in UK.

**Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley**, a 30- year diplomat, is the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Department of State and was the longest serving U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Malta. Through a series of senior positions that included advising the Commander of U.S. cyber forces on our foreign policy priorities, expanding our counterterrorism partners and programs as Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, and Coordinating the largest evacuation of American citizens from a war zone since WW ll, her professional life has played out almost daily in international media. She began her formal work in teaching and leadership development as Chairwoman for Middle East Area studies at the prestigious Foreign Service Institute where U.S. diplomats are trained. Earlier in her career, she served in Baghdad, Jakarta and Cairo before taking on the position of Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for the Middle East and Africa. Her Middle East assignments include election monitoring in the Gaza Strip and, an extraordinary assignment where she actively supported gender equality in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the first woman to lead a diplomatic mission there. In addition to the State Department, she has held senior positions at the Defense Department and at the National Security Council of the White House. Prior to that, she was a fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the then Ranking Member, Senator Joseph Biden. Ms. Abercrombie-Winstanley is the recipient of the Maltese Order of Merit, Department of State Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards, including "For acts of courage during an attack on the U.S. Consulate General, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on December 6, 2004 by al-Qa'ida terrorists."

**Ambassador Harry K. Thomas Jr.** is a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a Senior Strategic Engagement Leader at Special Operations Command. He served as ambassador to Zimbabwe (2016-2018), the Philippines (2010-2013) and Bangladesh (2003-2005). He retired in March 2018 with the rank of Career Minister after more than three decades in the Foreign Service. Ambassador Thomas also served as Executive Secretary and Special Assistant to Secretary Rice, Director General of the Foreign Service, Director for South Asia at the National Security Council and Director of the Operations Center. Ambassador Thomas speaks Spanish, Hindi, and Bangla. He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University. He was the Commencement Speaker at Holy Cross and Loyola University. He is a Trustee of the College of the Holy Cross, the American Academy of Diplomacy, Care for the Homeless and, Chairperson of Winter4Kids and is a former Northern Virginia Swimming Official.

Ivo Daalder is president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and served as the U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2009-2013. Ambassador Daalder was educated at the universities of Kent, Oxford, and Georgetown, and received his PhD in political science from MIT.

Kristjan Prikk is the Estonian Ambassador to the United States since May 2021. Before assuming his current duties, Prikk served as the Permanent Secretary of the Estonian Ministry of Defense. Prior to becoming the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Prikk worked as Undersecretary for Defense Policy in the Ministry of Defense from July 2017 to August 2018. From 2015 to 2017 Mr. Prikk was the Director of National Security and the Defense Coordination Unit of the Estonian Government Office. He also served as Deputy Director of the same office for two years prior to becoming the Director in 2015. His previous Ministry of Defense assignments include serving as Defense Counsellor at the Estonian Embassy in Washington, D.C. (2010-2013) and as Director of International Cooperation Department in Tallinn (2007-2010). Mr. Prikk holds a Master’s degree from the United States Army War College and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Tartu, Estonia. Mr. Prikk is married to Liis, with whom he has two daughters and a son.

Māris Selga is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Latvia to the United States of America since September 16, 2019 and non-resident Acting Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia to the United Mexican States. Prior to his current post, he was Ambassador to People’s Republic of China. Ambassador Selga joined the foreign service in 1994 where has held posts of Counselor at the Policy Planning Group, Head of Americas' Division, Counselor for security issues, Director of the Second Political (Bilateral) Department, as well Director General of Consular and Diplomatic Facilities Directorate. Ambassador Selga previously has been posted to the Latvian Embassies in Denmark and the United States. He has been Latvia’s first residing Ambassador in the Arab Republic of Egypt and non-resident Ambassador to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. He has also been Observer in the League of Arab States and the African Union. In 2021 Ambassador Selga was awarded the Cross of Recognition, second class (the Grand Officer of the Cross of Recognition), State award of the Republic of Latvia. Ambassador Selga has graduated from the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the University of Latvia.

Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, a foreign policy expert and former diplomat specializing in national security affairs, is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs and Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy & Security. She brings over 30 years of government and international experience across senior levels of business, diplomacy, and the defense sector. She was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Thomson Reuters, and during this time, held the Distinguished National Security Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy. From 2001-2009, she served as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs and the President’s Envoy to Northern Ireland (2007-2009) receiving the Secretary of State’s highest honor the Distinguished Service Medal. She also served on the Defense Policy Board, the Secretary of State's Foreign Affairs Board, Eximbank's Advisory Council and as Chair of Eximbank's Council on China Competition. Ambassador Dobriansky was Senior Vice President and Director of the CFR Washington Office and the first George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies. She received a B.S.F.S. summa cum laude, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. She has received high-level international recognition from the governments of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary and Colombia.

Ambassador Blake served for 31 years in the State Department in a wide range of leadership positions. From 2013 to 2016, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, where he focused on building stronger business and educational ties between the U.S. and Indonesia. In this role, he worked with the CEOs of Indonesia’s largest palm oil producers to develop a major sustainable palm oil initiative to reduce Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

**Swanee Hunt’s** mission is to achieve gender parity, especially as a means to end war and rebuild societies, as well as to alleviate poverty and other human suffering. At Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Hunt is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy. In 1997, she founded the Women and Public Policy Program, a research center concerned with domestic and foreign policy, which she directed for more than a decade. She teaches “Inclusive Security,” exploring how women are systematically excluded from peace processes, the impact, and the policy steps needed to rectify the problem. From 1993 to 1997, Hunt served as ambassador to Austria, where she hosted negotiations and international symposia focused on stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states. Prior to that, she made her mark as a civic leader and philanthropist in Denver, where she led initiatives on public education, affordable housing, women’s empowerment, and mental health services for two mayors and the governor. In 2007, Ambassador Hunt was inducted into the** National Women’s Hall of Fame**. She is a widely published columnist and has authored three books: the award-winning \_This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace\_, her memoir, \_Half-Life of a Zealot,\_ and \_Rwandan Women Rising\_.

**Ambassador Wendy R. Sherman** is a Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, she is a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center. Amb. Sherman is Senior Counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group. Amb. Sherman led the U.S. negotiating team that reached agreement on a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between the P5+1, the European Union, and Iran for which, among other diplomatic accomplishments, she was awarded the National Security Medal by President Barack Obama. Prior to her service at the Department of State, she was Vice Chair and founding partner of the Albright Stonebridge Group, Counselor of the Department of State under Secretary Madeleine Albright and Special Advisor to President Clinton and Policy Coordinator on North Korea.

**Amber Christoffersen** is the Greenways Director at the Mystic River Watershed Association. She is a designer and planner who has worked on active transportation, open space and affordable housing projects in the Boston area and around the country. She is leading the participatory planning process for dozens of path and park projects across the watershed. Amber holds a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the College of William and Mary. As an avid long distance runner, she is constantly exploring the region's many waterfronts and parklands, looking for opportunities to make them more beautiful and accessible.

With over 15 years of experience, Amber Harris is an award-winning producer for some of the world’s largest media companies and Fortune 500 brands. She has worked across the commercial, brand and agency sides of production, helping to guide ideas from concept through air date. Producing everything from digital, social and experiential campaigns to microsites, apps, commercials, music video, promos, live events and films. Amber is currently VP/Executive Producer and Co-Lead of Production at Digitas Boston where she works on national integrated campaigns for companies like General Motors, Ebay, Dunkin Donuts, JFK Library & Museum and more. Her work has been featured in major publications as well as Tim Cook’s keynote address at the Apple Developer’s conference. Prior to Digitas, she had multiple roles at MTV networks where she was most recently Acting Supervising Producer for VH1. There, she was responsible for managing a team of production experts to create on-air and off-air Promos, on-air branding, integrated marketing campaigns and more. Additionally, she is the Co-Founder of COLLECTIVE JUICES, where she helps find funding for independent film projects, while producing short films and music videos

Amber Jackson is an oceanographer, environmental scientist and entrepreneur. She has a B.A. in Marine Science from UC Berkeley and a M.A.S in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her expertise is unique, using technology to facilitate to intersection of science and communication. A former Ocean Curator at Google in partnership with the Sylvia Earle Alliance, she engineered and launched intelligent layers in Google Maps that distill and relate complex concepts in ocean science for a variety of audiences. Ms. Jackson also contributed to the construction of the virtual seafloor found in Google Earth by collecting, analyzing and editing multi-beam bathymetry and acoustic backscatter data from vessels and satellites. Ms. Jackson has extensive experience as an project manager specializing in ecological impact assessments, marine biological monitoring and habitat restoration through the Rigs to Reefs program.