U.S. Department of State

The diaspora experience has long been “America’s Story.” As Russell Shorto’s book, The Island at the Center of the World, details, seventeenth-century Manhattan was a microcosm of the much larger American diaspora to follow: among the island’s then-400 inhabitants, 18 different languages were spoken.  Centuries later, this description not only fits New York, but also the United States as a whole.  Today, almost one quarter of Americans are first- or second-generation diasporans. MORE

American movies have always been a bright and flickering window into our nation’s history — a great narrative tool to tell the American story to foreign audiences. What better way could there be to support our public diplomacy than by screening documentaries about our culture and history at more than 500 American Spaces around the world?

Through the “America’s Media Makers” grant program, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), talented American film-makers have told the stories of the American Dust Bowl, Broadway musicals, American jazz, and the Freedom Riders who challenged segregation in the early 1960s, and also created portraits of revered American figures, including Benjamin Franklin, Eleanor Roosevelt, and President Lyndon Johnson. MORE

During a World Health Assembly side meeting on May 20, I joined U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, and leaders from across Africa to highlight the contributions the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) is making in meeting the priorities of national ministries of health.

In 2010, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) embarked on this bold new initiative — MEPI — to build sustainability through funding commitments, support, and integration with national health efforts including national Human Resources for Health Strategies and Implementation Plans.  There is a critical need for improved human resources for health capacities, both in terms of absolute numbers of those delivering services and the quality of their preparation to do so.  Therefore, in collaboration with partner governments, PEPFAR, the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health, and the Health Resources Services Administration committed to investing $130 million to strengthen medical educational capacity in sub-Saharan Africa.  MORE