Ambassador Ruth A. Davis Diplomatic Pioneer Still Working to Change Face of Foreign Service by John Shaw Throughout her 35 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, Ambassador Ruth A. Davis has worked diligently, shrewdly and cheerfully to make the nationís diplomatic corps better reflect the diversity of the United States. Davis, a career ambassador who is now at Howard University, said the U.S. diplomatic corps is attracting growing numbers of qualified minorities and women and is no longer the preserve of white males from privileged backgrounds and Ivy League educations it once was. This diversity, she said, gives the world a more accurate picture of the United States and allows American diplomats to better represent the nation overseas. "The United States is a microcosm of the world, and we should recognize that and use that as a strength," she said in an interview at her office at Howard Universityís Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center. "Iíve always believed the Foreign Service should look more like America," she added. "Iíve made it clear throughout my career that Iím not pleased with the composition of the Foreign Service. Iíve spent a lot of time mentoring minorities to enter the Foreign Service and making sure they stay in and do well." As Davis has risen through the ranks of the U.S. Foreign Service, she has focused tightly on this goal and has also worked to bolster the management and leadership skills of American diplomats. Davis has found important allies in her quest, especially her two most recent bosses: former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and current Secretary of State Colin Powell. The ambassador said the professional successes of Albright and Powell have been inspiring and have generated enthusiasm and hope for many people who felt excluded from the diplomatic corps in the past. "It was wonderful to serve under Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state who smashed the glass ceiling for women in diplomacy," she said. "And then to have her followed by Colin Powell was absolutely fantastic for me. This showed that women and minorities can succeed at the very top of the State Debarment." Davis said Powell has been an especially important ally in getting additional resources for international programs and attracting more diverse people into the Foreign Service. "Colin Powell was very serious and so was I about attracting minoritiesóand the best and brightest of minoritiesóto the Foreign Service. We spent a lot of time reaching out. Iíve wanted to help change the face of the Foreign Service. We havenít exactly changed the face of the Foreign Service yet, but weíre moving in the right direction," she said. Davis brings a compelling, even inspiring, life story to her work in diplomacy. Born in Phoenix on May 28, 1943, she grew up in the segregated South and recalls the stark separation of whites and blacks. She remembers family vacations with her parents in which many restaurants and public services were off limits to African Americans. She received a bachelorís degree in sociology from Spelman College in Atlanta. While at Spelman, Davis spent 15 months as a Merrill Scholar studying and traveling in Europe and the Middle East. This fueled her interest in the outside world. She later earned a masterís degree in social work from the University of California at Berkeley. Davis entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1969 and was assigned as a consular officer in Kinshasa, Zaire. Specializing in consular affairs, she later served in Nairobi (1971-73), Tokyo (1973-76) and Naples (1976-80). After working in various State Department postings in Washington, D.C., Davis was appointed consul general in Barcelona from 1987 to 1991, during which time she helped that city prepare for the 1992 Olympics. She later used her Olympic experience and contacts to help Atlanta win and then prepare for the 1996 Olympic Games. Davis served as ambassador to Benin and was then appointed principal deputy assistant secretary of state for consular affairs from 1995 until 1997, when she was appointed to direct the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), the U.S. governmentís primary training institution for American diplomats. The FSI is based in Virginia and provides more than 500 courses, including about 60 foreign language classes, to more than 30,000 students a year from the State Department and other government agencies and the military service branches. After four years as FSI chief, Davis continued her rise through the ranks. She was appointed director general of the Foreign Service Institute and director of human resources, a job she held from June 1, 2001, to June 30, 2003. A diplomatic pioneer, Davis is the first African American woman to be promoted to the rank of career ambassador. She has won many awards, including Presidential Distinguished Service awards in 1999 and 2002 and a prestigious State Department award in 1999 for mentoring and developing junior officers. Powell also awarded Davis the Secretaryís Distinguished Award last year. Warm, good-humored and firm, Davis projects a beguiling blend of softness and steel. In a public event at the State Department several years ago, President George W. Bush paid Davis the ultimate compliment: He said she reminded him of his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush. Reflecting on her career, Davis said she has greatly enjoyed her work in the U.S. Foreign Service and is grateful that her last two jobs allowed her to implement programs she strongly believes in. As head of the FSI, Davis improved language, crisis management and public diplomacy programs. "When I was at FSI, one of the things I wanted to do was change the cultureóto make training an important element in the careers of Foreign Service officers," she said. "When I arrived, people didnít have time for training. It wasnít considered important. I was convinced that there had to be a cultural change. Training is very important." Davis noted that Powell spent six years of his 36-year military career in training programs and is a strong supporter of career-long training. Good training, she added, can help American diplomats deal with such challenges as terrorism, democratization and human rights, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, international peacekeeping, environmental degradation, population, refugee and migration issues, and ethnic and religious affairs. "From the time I entered the Foreign Service, I heard people say that Foreign Service officers were the best and the brightest, but they couldnít manage their way out of a paper bag. And they couldnít lead. I decided I didnít want to come back here in 10 years and hear the same thing." Davis said she is proud of launching a much praised leadership and management program at the Foreign Service Institute. She helped develop a continuum of a learning program that outlines a training schedule for Foreign Service officers over the course of their careers. "Developing the School of Leadership and Management was one of my greatest accomplishments, and it will be one of my most long-lasting accomplishments for FSI," she said. "I started a trend in actually defining what training people need to bolster their careers. Iím very proud of that." Davis is also encouraged by the State Departmentís enhanced attention to public diplomacy. Under her leadership, the FSI developed a public diplomacy division. "Public diplomacy is really at the heart of American diplomacy. We need to have excellent public diplomacy now, especially for the challenges we face after 9/11," Davis said. "Sept. 11 taught us that there are people who hate us so much they are willing to kill themselves in order to do us harm. Iím absolutely convinced that we have the right values in this country. We have to identify those values and get out and defend those values. We have to learn to better explain our values and to come to a meeting point when others donít share our values," she added. Davis said that although her stint as FSI director helped her design state-of-the-art training programs for U.S. diplomats, her tenure as director general allowed her to implement many of these plans. "There was no better time for me to be director general than when Colin Powell was secretary of state," she said. "From the day he came to office, he said that his job was not only to manage American foreign policy but to be the CEO of the State Department. He said that not only foreign policy mattersópeople matter. Facilities matter. Technology matters. Security matters. He said all of these things are important and that he would be involved in them." Davis credits Powell for pushing hard to secure more f unds for Americaís diplomatic programs and especially to hire new Foreign Service officers. She points out that during much of the 1990s, the State Department hired at below the attrition rate, even as the United States was opening more than a dozen new embassies in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. "That was a disaster we are still recovering from. We should have at least asked Congress for the resources." She strongly supports Powellís Diplomatic Readiness Initiative, which is a multiyear effort to hire a new generation of diplomats and also to reach out and attract a larger pool of applicants. The plan, launched by Powell in 2001, calls for a three-year program to hire 1,158 people over and above those who are hired to fill gaps created by attrition. Davis said minorities represented 12.5 percent of the U.S. Foreign Service in 2001ówith women constituting about one-third of the Foreign Serviceówhile 18.5 percent of the diplomatic corps is now comprised of minorities. Davis said she also is encouraged that in recent years more and more women and minorities have been taking the State Departmentís Foreign Service examination. Davis won praise for significant accomplishments during her tenure as FSI director general. She is credited with identifying and fixing practical impediments to hiring the best talentólackluster advertising, weak follow-up with candidates and long lag times between tests and interminable waits for security clearances. Drawing from her discussions with junior diplomats during her years at FSI, Davis also worked to ensure that diplomats didnít continue to be hampered by late notices, sloppy paperwork, conflicting instructions and salary computation errors. In addition, as director general, Davis sifted through the many proposals for reforming the administration of the Foreign Service and identified those that could be done easily, those that could be accomplished in a reasonable period of time, and those that were not realistically achievableóin the process introducing mandatory leadership and management training for all employees. In an essay on Davisís tenure as director general, Louise Crane, a vice president of the American Foreign Service Association, said none of Davisís predecessors "transformed a bureaucratic culture as profoundly" as she did. "In just two years she has changed a culture. Her legacy lies not in yet one more study of State to throw on the fire or in more rhetoric about Foreign Service sacrifice," Crane wrote. "Her legacy is fast service, high standards, transparency, honesty and recognitionóall those old fashioned virtues which must have been apparent when Secretary Powell asked her to take the job." Davis said she is delighted to have restructured the recruiting process. She explained that until recently, there was a 27-month lag between when successful applicants took their first exam and when they entered the Foreign Service. "A long time ago you could expect people to wait that long. Now you canít. We donít have the only game in town. Once you get them, youíve got to hold their interest," she said. The ambassador credits Powell for management reforms that have boosted morale at State. "Colin Powellís focus on the institution has helped the State Department enormously. Morale has never been better. Colin Powell swears in every ambassador he possibly can, and he swears in the junior officers. He walks around the building. He goes to the Christmas parties. He drops in on people to say hello and see what they are doing." From her post at Howard University, Davis remains committed to helping find a new generation of diplomats and then training them to deal with the challenges of the 21st century. She meets with students, organizes roundtables with ambassadors, and works with the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program. This program is a partnership between the State Department and Howard and is funded by a $1 million grant passed by Congress, along with $1 million from the MacArthur Foundation. The program offers scholarships to students seeking a Foreign Service career. Davis said her commitment to improving American diplomacy will continue. "Iím still working to make the Foreign Service more diverse," she said. "I want to be one of the movers. What I want in the next 10 years is to have the State Department look like America. Weíll have better representation if our Foreign Service looks like America. And weíll also have a better foreign policy." John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.