| Message from the Performance Improvement Officer: Sid Kaplan, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of State It is my pleasure to welcome you to the U.S. Department of State’s Third Annual Conference on Program Evaluation. This year’s conference theme, Paradigms for Evaluating Diplomacy in the 21st Century, places program evaluation as a central and key activity for informing decisions on how U.S. foreign policy can best be carried out around the globe. It is my strong belief that evaluating program performance and ensuring return on investment can most effectively be achieved using a variety of tools and methods and with a strategic vision grounded in organizational and leadership commitment to performance management. Over the next one and a half days you will have the opportunity to meet and interact with experts and leaders in the field of program evaluation. These professionals make active use of diplomacy and development tools and the resources of partner institutions to analyze and pursue long-term strategies for achieving security, prosperity and opportunity around the world. At this conference we welcome the dedicated employees of the Department of State and USAID, our colleagues from other federal agencies and from partner institutions including academic institutions, and guests from overseas. We have much to learn together as we continue to seek greater accountability in our programs while building a world characterized by peace, security and prosperity. |
Sid Kaplan, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of State 
Chuck Hagel, Former U.S. Senator, Nebraska 
Kim Ghattas, BBC - Foreign Media Panelist
Patrícia Campos Mello, O Estado de Sao Paulo - Foreign Media Panelist
Shinichiro Serita, Kyodo News - Foreign Media Panelist
Shinichiro Serita is currently Kyodo News correspondent at the Washington bureau. Prior to his work in Washington, Shinichiro was correspondent to the China general bureau from 2007-2010.
Shinichiro Serita joined Kyodo News in 1996 after receiving his bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Waseda University. He began his work as a staff writer at the Nagoya bureau and then spent a year studying Chinese at Beijing Normal University. After his academic year, Shinichiro returned to Kyodo, gaining experience in the political department and the foreign news department.
Patty Culhane, Al Jazeera - Foreign Media Panelist
Patty Culhane is the Washington correspondent for Al Jazeera English. Prior to working at Al Jazeera English, she worked at MSNBC as a White House correspondent where she traveled both domestically and internationally with President Bush.
From 2000 to 2006 she worked at NBC affiliate WAVY-TV in Norfolk, Virginia as a military reporter. She has traveled throughout the Middle East and Europe to cover all branches of the armed services.
Rick Ruth - Moderator
Rick Ruth is the Director of the Office of Policy and Evaluation in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the Department of State. Rick is responsible for ensuring that educational and cultural programs are consistent with U.S. foreign policy and for the evaluation of programs implemented under the Fulbright-Hays Act. He established the Department's first office of alumni affairs.
Rick Ruth is a former Foreign Service Officer and career member of the Senior Executive Service. He joined the United States Information Agency in the mid-1970s as a Russian-speaking staff member.
He also did stints as Chief of the USIA Operations Center and as USSR Country Affairs Officer. He was Deputy Chief of Staff to four directors of USIA, from 1988-1999. With the integration of USIA and State, Rick became the first person to hold the position of Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (1999-2002).
Plenary Speakers 
Shelley Metzenbaum, Associate Director for Performance and Personnel Management, Office of Management and Budget
Session Transcript | Video
Shelley H. Metzenbaum serves as the Associate Director for Performance and Personnel Management of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, reporting to the nation's first Chief Performance Officer. She previously served as founding director of the Collins Center for Public Management at UMass Boston's McCormack School, associate administrator for Regional Operations and State/Local Relations at the U.S. EPA, undersecretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, Massachusetts capital budget director, executive director of Harvard's Kennedy School Executive Session on Public Sector Performance Management, and executive director of the Environmental Compliance Consortium. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and holds a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Ruth Levine, USAID Senior Advisor for Evaluation and the Director of Evaluation, Policy Analysis, and Learning
Session Transcript | Video
Ruth Levine is currently the USAID Senior Advisor for Evaluation and the Director of Evaluation, Policy Analysis, and Learning. Previously, Dr. Levine was a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD) and Vice President for programs and operations.
Dr. Levine joined CGD soon after it was created in the fall of 2001 and helped to shape the Center’s unique approach to making the world a better place: conducting independent research to devise practical new policy solutions to reduce global poverty and inequality, and then pushing these ideas into action.
Dr. Levine, a highly regarded development economist and an expert in particular on global health and education, has been closely associated with some of the Center’s best known successes. She is also a co-author of a recent pair of influential CGD reports on development and adolescent girls.
Foreign Ministries Panel
Session Transcript | Video
Ruth Wiseman, United Kingdom Representative - Foreign Ministries Panelist
Dr. Ruth Wiseman is Head of Research and Evaluation in the Communication Directorate of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Her role is to ensure that audience insight and ongoing learning underpin the Directorate’s public diplomacy and strategic campaigning work. Previously she was a Senior Analyst in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit where she was responsible for developing and using innovative analytical and delivery methodologies to influence decision making and drive delivery across a number of high profile policy areas including immigration, crime and transport. Dr. Wiseman is an experienced research and evaluation specialist having worked for five government departments during her eight years in the Civil Service. Prior to that, she undertook her PhD research at the University of Sheffield.
Marc Calcoen, Belgium Representative - Foreign Ministries Panelist
Marc Calcoen is currently serving as the Deputy to the Secretary General or Permanent Secretary of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His responsibility is primarily management of the ministry.
Mr. Calcoen was born in Ieper, Belgium and studied law as well as political and social sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. He also obtained an LL.M (Master of Laws) from the University of Virginia. After working in banking for two years, he transferred to the Foreign Ministry upon successful completion of the diplomatic exam. He was posted to Tokyo (second secretary, 1990-1994), Buenos Aires (consul-general and deputy head of mission, 1994-1996), and Paris (political counselor, 1996-1999).
Upon his return to Brussels, he was the advisor to the Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry and from 2000 to 2002 deputy head of cabinet of the Minister President of Flanders. He then worked at the permanent representation of Belgium to the EU as “Antici” or closest collaborator of the permanent representative. From August 2005 to September 2009, he was the ambassador of Belgium to Singapore and Brunei.
He enjoys eclectic art, traveling worldwide, reading nonfiction, and playing sports. Mr. Calcoen speaks Dutch, French, English, German, Spanish and some Japanese.
Kentaro Fujimoto, Japan Representative - Foreign Ministries Panelist
Kentaro Fujimoto is currently the First Secretary, Management and Coordination Section of the Embassy of Japan. Prior to assuming this role in 2008, Mr. Fujimoto was the Principal Deputy Director of the UN Policy Division in the Foreign Policy Bureau and the Principal Deputy Director of the International Trade Division in the Economic Affairs Bureau.
Mr. Fujimoto entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994. He first worked in the Japan-US Security Treaty Division. From 2000 – 2002, he worked in the Oceana Division of the Asian and Oceania Affairs Bureau. In his next career move, Mr. Fujimoto was Assistant to the Parliamentary Vice Minister before becoming a Principal Deputy Director.
Kentaro Fujimoto received his Master of Arts from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in 1997. He graduated from the Law Faculty at the University of Tokyo in 1994. 
René Dinesen, Denmark Representative - Foreign Ministries Panelist
René Dinesen is Director of the Strategy & Policy Planning Unit of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Strategy Unit was established in 2009 to strengthen Danish foreign policy by taking a longer term, strategic view of global trends and making policy recommendations to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and to the Minister for Development Cooperation.
Prior to his work at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dinesen was the Deputy Representative and Counsellor for the Mission of Denmark to the United Nations. In his role at the United Nations, Mr. Dinesen focused on Security Council affairs, Peace Building, Public Diplomacy and Press Relations. He began his start at the Danish Ministry, working for the Foreign Minister of Denmark and the Danish Permanent Secretary of State.
René Dinesen began his career working as the Head of Section for the WTO, OECD, Climate Change, Relations to US and Japan. He then progressed to the Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Denmark in Bucharest, Romania. He further graduated to the position as Head of Section for Foreign Policy Department, focusing on EU Enlargement, relations to France, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
He received his M.A. in International Relations and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen.
