Dr. Sherry Lee Mueller,
Sherry Lee Mueller, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the School of International Service (SIS), American University, Washington, D.C., teaching on cultural diplomacy and international exchange. She served as longtime president of Global Ties U.S. (formerly NCIV) and is now president emeritus. Before NCIV, Sherry worked for the Institute of International Education (IIE) as Director, Professional Exchange Programs. Prior to joining IIE, Mueller served as an Experiment in International Living Leader to the former Soviet Union, a Liaison Officer for the U.S. Department of State, and a lecturer at the University of Rhode Island.
Mueller has served on the boards of the Public Diplomacy Council of America, PYXERA Global, and the International Student House in Washington D.C. She has served as a speaker for the U.S. Department of State in Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Washington, D.C., giving lectures and conducting workshops on leadership development for nonprofit organizations. In 2014, Georgetown University Press published the second edition of the book Working World: Careers in International Education, Exchange, and Development that Mueller co-authored with Mark Overmann. Mueller earned her M.A.L.D. and Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She is a native of northern Illinois.
Ambassador Thomas B. Robertson
Thomas B Robertson served as U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia from 2004 to 2007. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, Robertson served twice in Budapest, as political counselor and then Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires, and in Moscow. In Washington, he served as Director for Russian Affairs at the NSC and in State Department positions ranging from counterterrorism to human resources to legislative affairs. Before his retirement, he was Dean of the Leadership and Management School of the Foreign Service Institute.
Before entering the Foreign Service, Robertson was a guide and then an exhibit manager with the U.S. Information Agency, working on cultural exhibits in the Soviet Union, Hungary, Romania, and Zaire. He has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a masters from Johns Hopkins School of International Affairs, and has studied at the Naval War College and in Germany, the Soviet Union, and Italy. He speaks Russian, German, Hungarian, and some Slovene, French, and Italian.
Ambassador Eric Stromayer
Ambassador Stromayer enjoyed a 36 year career with the US. Department of State, leading and building teams in eight countries (Haiti, Burkina Faso, India, Morocco, Hungary, Madagascar, Jordan, Togo and then back to Haiti), and in Washington. He led through crises as the desk officer for Cote D’Ivoire during that country’s 2002-04 civil war, as management oversight (AF/EX Director) for all of sub-Saharan Africa (2014-17), as Ambassador in Togo (2019-22) and most recently as CDA leading our embassy in Haiti for two years 2022-24. He is proud of the work he and his colleagues have done to help others in the name of our country. Along the way he visited Ebola stricken posts, supported PEPFAR programs, COVID vaccine distribution, USAID and CDC projects, and visited Ambassador’s self-help programs. He enjoyed the challenges of policy making in Washington as well as at the grass roots levels in the field. He has successfully negotiated with heads of state, foreign governments, civil society, business leaders and third agencies. For much of his career his family was with him (when security permitted) and they all enjoyed their experiences around the world. He has enjoyed his public speaking in French and Creole. He will always remember one head of State telling him “as long as your flag flies here there is hope for my people.” Ambassador Stromayer began his overseas professional career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal.
Academic background: Ambassador Stromayer holds a Masters degree from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of the Arts from Northwestern University. In addition to fluent French he speaks working level Haitian Creole, Italian, Wolof, and some Hungarian and Spanish.
Awards: Recipient of numerous State Department Meritorious and Superior Honor awards and Senior Foreign Service Performance Pay awards. October 2024 Recipient of Presidential Rank Award for sustained outstanding performance 2020-2023.