State Department Official Encourages Students to Pursue Public Service

“At SIPA, I had the opportunity to work with giants in their fields, people with amazing public service careers,” said Ambassador Nancy McEldowney MIA ’86 in remarks to SIPA students during a March 1 visit.

“SIPA propelled students forward through internships. I interned at the UN, the East-West Center, and the State Department,” she added.

Today, McEldowney is director of the Foreign Service Institute, an appointment made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Her more than 30 years of experience in the Foreign Service includes service as U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria and as chargé and deputy chief of mission in Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Everywhere her career brought her, McEldowney said, she carried her SIPA background with her: “I've had a chance to go around the world and apply what I learned at SIPA,” she said.

McEldowney also shared insights with students on the changing atmosphere of foreign policy and national security.

“The world isn't necessarily more dangerous, but there are more dangers,” she said, pointing to increased pandemics, corruption, and state instability. "In the past, you knew where the power centers were located. Now there is a diffusion of power throughout the system.”

This diffusion of power not only is reflected in the instability of nation-states, but also in the power of the individual.

“Today, individuals have been able to affect very significant and important change unlike ever before,” McEldowney said.

McEldowney encouraged students to pursue careers in traditional public service.

“A career in diplomacy means a lifetime of learning. You will master many new areas, such as history, contemporary policy, and language.”

McEldowney said the choice to work as a public servant is a personal one. When she attended SIPA in the mid 1980s, she said, international banks recruited SIPA students for high-paying jobs. But McEldowney took a position at the State Department—at a much lower salary, to her parents’ great chagrin—because it was what her heart wanted.

“Every day, you make a moral choice. You choose how you spend your time and talent,” she said. Working for the State Department “was the right choice for me.”

Addressing students who might be uncertain about what course to follow, McEldowney offered words of advice.

“Stay in touch what you are passionate about and what you care most deeply about,” she said. “At times that is the only thing you have to guide you.”

— Kristen Grennan MPA ’16