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FSI Deputy Director Julieta Valls Noyes, FSI Director Daniel B. Smith, USDSF President David C. Miller, and USDSF Co-Chair Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering at the MOU signing ceremony. Ambassadors Smith and Miller hold the signed MOUs.

On February 5, 2019, the Foreign Service Institute signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the US Diplomatic Studies Foundation (USDSF). This exciting new partnership will provide for a broad-based alliance focused on strengthening the Department’s ability to train U.S. Government foreign affairs professionals and to improve the practical application of their job skills.

“There are things that we simply can’t do with the resources we have, and I think [this partnership] with the US Diplomatic Studies Foundation will enable us to do those things in a way that we may have never envisioned before. This is an important chapter in the history of this Institution.”

-Ambassador Daniel B. Smith, Foreign Service Institute Director

Through this partnership, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) will tap into the expertise of former senior government officials currently leading the U.S. Diplomatic Studies Foundation, including retired Ambassadors Thomas R. Pickering and David C. Miller, former Assistant Secretary of State Chester A. Crocker, and former Under Secretary of Homeland Security Rand Beers. The MOU outlines the partners’ intent to establish a Visiting Fellows program at FSI and facilitate investments in training assessment, evaluation, educational technology, and FSI staff development. Read more in the full media note.

“Institutions of excellence are committed to education and training. The long-run success of an institution almost always rests on training. And training begins here. It should go on throughout a career. Training ends here. The Foreign Service Institute has a hugely important role in the Department.”

-Ambassador David C. Miller, US Diplomatic Studies Foundation President

Ambassador Smith and Ambassador Miller sign the MOUs at the Foreign Service Institute.

U.S. Department of State

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