The second event of IPDGC's monthly series hosting International Ambassadors to learn about their country's approach to public diplomacy.

The series will explore two related themes:

• Savvy diplomats understand that to succeed in advancing foreign policy goals in Washington it is not enough to communicate in strictly government-to-government channels; they must act as public diplomats, engaging a range of audiences to influence perceptions. The interplay between public diplomacy actions and policy goals is frequently addressed from a U.S. government perspective, or in treating foreign governments' actions in a third country setting, but this series explores Embassies' engagement with the U.S. public.
• What does it take to be an Ambassador assigned by your government to Washington, DC? What sort of personality, background, and skills are required? Once assigned, how does an Ambassador prepare for their assignment, and once here, how do they continue a process of learning about their country of assignment? Most importantly, how does an Ambassador assigned to Washington connect with America outside the beltway? If every savvy diplomat is a public diplomat, then how do Ambassadors remain connected with the broader American public?

About the Speaker:

Dr. Catalina Crespo Sancho is the Ambassador of Costa Rica to the United States. She is a human rights specialist with over 20 years of experience in international development.

In 2018, the Costa Rican Congress elected her for a 4-year term as the Head of the National Human Rights Institution. During that period, the Central American and Caribbean Council of National Institutions of Human Rights also elected her as the 2019-2020 President, where she implemented a regional approach, to deal with the migration crisis.

From 2013 to 2018 Ambassador Crespo-Sancho worked at the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank on development issues in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

At the World Bank, she worked on the prevention of violent conflict where she co-authored the UN/World Bank report, Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict. She has also worked as a gender advisor for governments including the government of Costa Rica and Madagascar. Additionally, she collaborated with the private sector on corporate social responsibility.

Ambassador Crespo-Sancho was a professor at Columbia University and at the University of Georgia, where she taught and conducted research on topics of immigration, gender, and education.

Ambassador Crespo-Sancho holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she attended with a Fulbright Scholarship; she has an MA in International Education from Framingham State University and a BA in Psychology from Universidad de Monterrey in Costa Rica.