Mroz Institute Inaugural Visiting Fellow Damon Wilson (right) with Brian Finlay, president and CEO of the Stimson Center (left)
Each academic year, the Mroz Institute invites to campus a select number of prominent international leaders as Visiting Fellows. During their brief but comprehensive stays, Visiting Fellows maximize interaction with students and the community while engaging their international networks.
Visiting Fellows participate in multiple events per day spanning classroom and public lectures to mentoring sessions with students and study groups. Visiting Fellows also help facilitate the World Affairs Colloquia. In addition, they stage and promote a colloquium on a topic of their interest.
Visiting Fellows are assigned students to serve as guides and a support team. Stipends support the cost of lodging and food, subsidize travel to and from Charleston and provide for an honorarium. Visiting Fellows are provided an office with a computer and phone for their use, as well as access to the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library and its resources from the EastWest Institute History Project.
Mroz Visiting Fellow Caroline Croft
Fall 2022
Caroline Croft will join the Mroz Institute as a Visiting Fellow in September 2022. Ms. Croft will engage her colleagues in discussions on human rights, security and defense, and cybersecurity. She will also have a workshop on Foreign Service careers for interested students and will be available for mentoring and advising session throughout the week.
Caroline Croft is a foreign service officer serving as the Diplomat in Residence at American University and will spend two weeks at the College of Charleston as a Mroz Visiting Fellow in fall 2022. Previously Croft served as the director of Business Outreach, senior officer and policy adviser on transnational affairs in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. She provided policy guidance and advice on regional political/military matters, defense, terrorism, human rights, trafficking in persons, religious freedom, nonproliferation, nuclear energy, democracy issues, economic, narcotics, legal reform, human rights, developmental assistance, consular and international organizations including the United Nations, Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank.
- Monday, Sept 26, 5pm – Seminar on human rights with Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert F. Kennedy RFK Human Rights.
- Tuesday, Sept 27, 5pm – workshop on foreign service careers with Caroline Croft, State Department.
- Wednesday, Sept 28, 5pm – Discussion on defense and security with Congresswoman Jane Harman.
- Thursday, Sept 29, 5pm – Discussion on cybersecurity with Ambassador Deborah McCarthy, who is currently the US lead negotiator on a UN Cybercrime Treaty.All seminars are scheduled for 5pm. These are in person events (rooms to be confirmed). You can also join us remotely via the webinar. The same URL is valid to access all 4 webinars http://shorturl.at/gntY1
Spring 2022
Damon Wilson (center), Mayor John Tecklenburg (left) & Maia Piscevic (Atlantic Council) at the Mroz Institute Inaugural Convening
Damon Wilson served as the inaugural Mroz Institute Visiting Fellow in Spring 2022. Wilson is president and CEO of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), private, non-profit, non-partisan foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democracy throughout the world. In January 2022 he discussed the challenges of democratic decline around the world in the past 16 years in a public talk “Forging a Coalition in Favor of Freedom Around the World” to a hybrid audience at the College of Charleston. This talk was co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Charleston and the Mroz Global Leadership Institute.
In early March, Wilson welcomed Global Ambassadors to the offices of the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC for a mentoring meeting and a discussion of democracy promotion programs directed by the NED.
Damon Wilson and John Winthrop at the Winthrop Roundtable
Damon Wilson participated in the Mroz Institute Inaugural Convening on March 20-22 by giving a featured talk “Democracy as Strategy in an Age of Authoritarian Resurgence” and joining the panel discussion on the Russian war against Ukraine along with Frank Emerson and Max Kovalov.
On April 4, Damon Wilson, gave a keynote address at the 2022 Winthrop Roundtable. He highlighted the efforts of civil society activists in Ukraine and the international support of civic activists provided by the National Endowment for Democracy.
Global Ambassadors visit to the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC