Beth Payne
Quote: “Diplomacy is the ability to influence foreign government officials, but also foreign populations, to change their behavior in ways that are in the interests of the United States.”
Beth Payne is the Associate Dean at the Foreign Service Institute. Before that, she was a career officer since 1993. Her assignments included postings as the U.S. Consul General in Kolkata, India and at U.S. Embassies in Senegal, Rwanda, Israel and Kuwait.
In 2003, she opened the Office of the U.S. Consul in Baghdad, Iraq. That same year, she received the State Department’s Award for Heroism for saving the arm of a fellow Foreign Service Officer after a hotel bombing in Baghdad. She was also named the State Department’s Consular Officer of the Year in 2004 in recognition of her work in Iraq.