279 - Christina Le - What is the Role of a U.S. Foreign Service Diplomat?

Christina Le is a career U.S. diplomat with the Department of State and is currently the Political Section Chief at the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, overseeing a team that advises the Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City and the Embassy in Hanoi on political issues impacting the bilateral relationship spanning 33 provinces from central to southern Vietnam. Her previous diplomatic assignments overseas have included Japan, Greece, and Mexico. Domestically, she has served in Washington, DC in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.From 2015-2018, as the president of the Asian American Foreign Affairs Association, she led diversity and inclusion advocacy efforts within the Department of State and was honored in 2017 with the William R. Rivkin Award for Constructive Dissent. She was a 2017 National Security Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a nonpartisan think tank.Before joining the Department of State, she held research positions at a microfinance NGO and at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Public Policy and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kyrgyzstan. She graduated from the University of Chicago. She speaks Vietnamese, Spanish, and Japanese; studied Kyrgyz; and received the AFSA Sinclaire Language Award for Greek.<br/><br/>Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vietnamese-with-kenneth-nguyen/donations<br/><br/>Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands<br/><br/>Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy