Speaker

Reuben E. Brigety II

Reuben E. Brigety II is the vice chancellor and president of the University of the South. He is also adjunct senior fellow for African peace and security issues at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). From 2015 to 2020, he was dean of the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. From 2013 to 2015, Brigety served as the appointed representative of the United States to the African Union and permanent representative of the United States to the UN Economic Commission of Africa. Prior to these appointments, Brigety served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of African Affairs from November 2011 to September 2013 with responsibility for southern African and regional security affairs.

Prior to his work in the policy arena, Brigety served as an assistant professor of government and politics at George Mason University and at American University’s School of International Service between August 2003 and April 2009. Brigety is a 1995 distinguished midshipman graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he earned a BS in political science (with merit), served as the brigade commander, and received the Thomas G. Pownall scholarship. He holds an MPhil and a PhD in international relations from the University of Cambridge. Brigety is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a recipient of CFR’s International Affairs Fellowship.

Moderator

Jacqueline Adams (MBA 1978)

Jacqueline Adams launched a second career as a communications strategist after more than two decades as an Emmy Award winning CBS News correspondent. Her boutique firm, J Adams: Strategic Communications, LLC, serves a variety of corporate and non-profit clients.

In the fall of 2020, she and co-author, Bonita C. Stewart, published “A Blessing: Women of Color Teaming Up to Lead, Empower and Thrive.” The book has been hailed as “a fresh, bold analysis of Black female leadership that serves as a playbook for successful and sustained corporate diversity, equity and inclusion.” For more information, visit www.leadempowerthrive.com.

Ms. Adams spent five years as a White House correspondent during the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations. In the 1990s, she was a prolific contributor to the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and CBS News Sunday Morning. She won an Emmy Award for the 48 Hours broadcast, “The Search for Matthew.”

Ms. Adams serves on the Board of Directors of the Harvard Business School Club of New York. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the International Advisory Council of the U.S. Institute of Peace as well as the Advisory Council of the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream.