Virtual meeting via Google Meet
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Please join us on October 25 between 5PM and 6PM for a video call discussion with Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley.

Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley grew up in Cleveland Heights and graduated from Cleveland Heights High School. She earned an AB from George Washington University and then an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University. She volunteered for the Peace Corps and was assigned to Oman. She joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and was posted to Iraq. Subsequently she held diplomatic posts in Indonesia, Egypt, and Israel. She was a fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the then Ranking Member Joe Biden. During the last two years of the Clinton Administration she served on the National Security Council. From 2002 to 2005 she was the first woman U. S. consul general in Saudi Arabia, where she survived the 2004 al-Qaeda attack on the consulate and was commended for her “acts of courage.” Subsequently, she was director of Middle East Area Studies for the Foreign Service Institute and deputy coordinator for counterterrorism. From 2012 to 2016 she served as ambassador to Malta.

In April of 2021, Secretary of State Blinken swore her in as Chief of Diversity and Inclusion at the Department of State.

Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley has spoken before the German Marshall Fund, the World Affairs Council, the Council on Foreign Relations (of which she is a member), the City Club of Cleveland and many others.

She has served on the board of the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art and College Now Greater Cleveland. She also sings with the Washington Performing Arts Society.

Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley has been a strong advocate in the United States and in other countries for women and minorities. She is married to Gerard Winstanley.

You can register here.