5 Ways to Support Young Women Leaders

5 Ways to Support Young Women Leaders

This article first appeared on Medium. Young women aren’t future women leaders. They are women leaders. Period. When I first published this blog in 2018, my views were informed by my participation in many events focused on young women and leadership across diverse...
Women Entrepreneurs in the Year of COVID

Women Entrepreneurs in the Year of COVID

By Susan Markham and Stephenie Foster While COVID has upended everyone’s lives, women have borne the brunt of the pandemic in so many ways. COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated gender inequalities and many of women’s economic gains have come to a standstill. Women...
Is US Foreign Policy Feminist?

Is US Foreign Policy Feminist?

Co-authored with Susan Markham. Originally published on the Our Secure Future blog. This is a year of milestones for women: the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Conference on Women, the 20th Anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and...

Change is Constant

As much things change, they stay the same. And, we change but stay the same. It’s been about six weeks since I’ve returned from Kabul.  As I’ve walked and driven around Washington, DC, San Francisco and New York City these last six weeks, I have a...

Living Two Lives

After 13 months in Kabul, I am home in Washington, DC.  I love every minute of being at home, but find myself living in two parallel universes.  I am back in my pre-Kabul life, but find myself drawn to seeing what my Kabul friends are up to at any given time. ...

In Memory of Anne Smedinghoff

I am back in DC and the first thing that I learned after getting to my house was that there had been a deadly attack in Zabul.  I then learned that Anne Smedinghoff was the young diplomat who was senselessly killed, while on her way to deliver books to a school.  Anne...

From Mumbai to the Maldives

What a journey, and an amazing set of contrasts. (As I called it before I left, the “great contrasts tour,” and I was right!”) Mumbai was a lot like I expected – hectic, exciting, historic, overcrowded and yet very comfortable. The colonial influence prevails...

Judging the Jessup

This blog was also posted on Huffington Post on February 5, 2013. Stories about Afghanistan are often told in large set pieces about war, violence and regional history.  And in fact those stories are critical to understanding the region, the country and the life that...

Home for the Holidays!

Well, not quite all of the holidays, but I was home and so enjoyed my time catching up with everyone and being part of a community of great people.  I was struck by how much we all rely on family and friends and the importance of community and sharing.  In the wake of...

The Queen’s Speech – Yes, that Queen!

On May 9, thanks to my friend Baroness Mary Goudie, I was privileged to attend the Queen’s Speech to the House of Lords and the House of Commons (yes that Queen!).   The Queen’s Speech marks the opening of Parliament in the UK, but for the American watching it, the...