International Women's Day Celebration

To kick-off Women's History Month and in advance of International Women's Day, please join the Women & Politics Institute and School of International Service for a special conversation about women's political participation around the world with female ambassadors representing their countries in the United States.

Panelists include:

• H.E. Ambassador Mathilde Mukantabana of Rwanda
• H.E. Ambassador Catalina Crespo-Sancho of Costa Rica
• H.E. Ambassador Ambassador Dina Kawar of Jordan
• H.E. Ambassador Svanhildur Hólm Valsdóttir of Iceland

WPI Exec. Director Betsy Fischer Martin and Kelly Adams-Smith, Adjunct Professorial Lecturer, SIS Dept. of Foreign Policy and Global Security and Former Diplomat, U.S. Senior Foreign Service, will moderate the discussion.

ABOUT H.E. AMBASSADOR CATALINA CRESPO-SANCHO

Dr. Catalina Crespo Sancho is the Ambassador of Costa Rica to the United States and has a strong background as a human rights specialist with over 20 years in international development.

In 2018, the Costa Rican Congress elected her to a four-year term as the Chief of the National Human Rights Institution. During this term, she was also chosen by the Central American and Caribbean Council of National Institutions of Human Rights to serve as their President for 2019-2020. In this role, she introduced a regional strategy to address the migration crisis.

From 2013 to 2018, Ambassador Crespo-Sancho worked with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, addressing development issues in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. At the World Bank, her focus was on the prevention of violent conflict, and she co-authored the UN/World Bank report, "Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict." She has also acted as a gender advisor to several governments, including Costa Rica and Madagascar, and collaborated with the private sector on corporate social responsibility initiatives.

In academia, Ambassador Crespo-Sancho taught and conducted research at Columbia University and the University of Georgia on immigration, gender, and education topics.

She earned a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo on a Fulbright Scholarship. Additionally, she holds an MA in International Education from Framingham State University and a BA in Psychology from the Universidad de Monterrey in Costa Rica.

ABOUT H.E. AMBASSADOR MATHILDE MUKANTABANA

Mathilde Mukantabana is the Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to the United States of America and non-resident Ambassador to Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Prior to this appointment, Ambassador Mukantabana was a tenured Professor of History at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento.

Ambassador Mukantabana is co-founder and former President of Friends of Rwanda Association, a non-profit American relief association created in the wake of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. In addition, under the aegis of United Nations for Development Programs, she started the academic program of Social Work at the National University of Rwanda in 1999 and taught a variety of subjects in the program.

Ambassador Mukantabana is a passionate community organizer and an active board member of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies program at Sonoma State University. She belongs to many local and international organizations including the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the Organization of African Leaders in Diaspora, which she co-founded. Ambassador Mukantabana was given the 2012 Peace and Justice Award from the Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution, the Peace and Global Peace Award (on behalf of Friends of Rwanda Association) by Global Majority, and the Crystal Apple Award for Best Instructor at Cosumnes River College in 2017.

In addition to her two master’s degrees in History and Social Work from Sacramento State, Ambassador Mukantabana holds a bachelor’s degree in History and Geography from the University of Burundi.

ABOUT H.E. AMBASSADOR DINA KAWAR

Ambassador Dina Kawar was appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the United States of America in June 2016. Ambassador Kawar also served as the Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations from August 2014 to June 2016. She has led the Jordanian delegation during Jordan’s non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council from 2014 to 2015 and became the first Arab woman to preside over the body when Jordan took its rotation.

In February 2016, she was appointed by the President of the General Assembly as a cofacilitator for the high-level meeting of the plenary of the General Assembly on the large movement of refugees and migrants to take place in September 2016.Prior to her position in New York, Ambassador Dina Kawar served as the Ambassador of Jordan to France from 2001 to 2013, with concurrent accreditation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and to the Holy See, since 2002. She also served as non-resident ambassador to Portugal from 2005 to 2013. Ambassador Kawar was awarded the Order of the State Centennial by His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan in 2022, as well as the Medal of Independence of the first degree in 2001.

Ambassador Kawar holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Mills College, both in the United States. She attended Harvard’s Center for International Affairs from 1986 to 1987. She speaks Arabic, French and English.

ABOUT SVANHILDUR HOLM VALSDOTTIR

Svanhildur Hólm Valsdóttir currently serves as the Ambassador of Iceland to the United States of America, having assumed her post in 2024. Prior to this appointment, Ambassador Valsdóttir served as the Secretary General of the Iceland Chamber of Commerce, where she led the nation’s primary advocacy group for the business community from 2020 to 2024.

Ambassador Valsdóttir has a distinguished career in public service and high-level policy advisory. Between 2013 and 2020, she served as a Senior Advisor within the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs. In addition, she held the role of Secretary General for the Independence Party’s Parliamentary Group at Alþingi and served as a key advisor to the Chairman of the Independence Party.

Ambassador Valsdóttir is a former prominent journalist and broadcaster with a decade of experience in national media. Between 1999 and 2009, she worked as an editor, reporter, and host for RÚV (the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service) and Stöð 2 (Channel 2). She has been an active board member for several prestigious institutions, including Reykjavík University and the Reykjavík City Theatre, and previously chaired the State Youth Council and the Nordic Youth Committee under the Nordic Council of Ministers.

In addition to her MBA from Reykjavík University, Ambassador Valsdóttir holds a law degree (Cand. jur.) from the University of Iceland.

ABOUT KELLY ADAMS-SMITH

Kelly Adams-Smith is an Adjunct Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Policy and Global Security/School of International Service at The American University in Washington, D.C. Until January 2026 she was a career diplomat in the U.S. Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister Counselor. Her last position was Ambassador-nominee to the Republic of Moldova.

From 2021-2024, Ms. Adams-Smith served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium. Previously she served as Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic, and was Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in London. From 2011-2013 she served as Deputy Executive Secretary of the White House National Security Council. Other diplomatic postings include Bulgaria, Estonia, and Russia and assignments at the Department of State headquarters in Washington, D.C. From 2019-2021 she was a faculty member of the National War College.

A New Jersey native, Ms. Adams-Smith entered the Foreign Service after earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from American University in Washington, D.C., and Harvard University and serving as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

ABOUT BETSY FISCHER MARTIN

Betsy Fischer Martin is an Emmy-winning journalist and former TV news executive. Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University and a faculty member in the School of Public Affairs, where she teaches courses on campaigns and elections. In the fall of 2023, she was a resident fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics where she conducted a weekly seminar on the presidential election. During her earlier career in television news, she spent 23 years at NBC News serving as the longtime Executive Producer of Meet the Press with Tim Russert and as the Managing Editor of NBC News Political Programming.

She currently serves on the Global Board of Directors of the International Women’s Forum and is the immediate past president of its Washington, D.C. chapter. She is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Young Global Leader alumna of the World Economic Forum, and a member of APCO Worldwide’s International Advisory Council.

A native of New Orleans, Fischer Martin did her undergraduate and graduate work at American University in Washington, DC. She is a cum laude graduate of their School of Public Affairs and earned a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from the AU School of Communication.

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