Crossing Borders: Politics, Culture and Identity

Speakers for this event

• Ambassador Vicki J. Huddleston (ret.)

  Ambassador Vicki J. Huddleston (ret.)

  Vicki Huddleston is an American diplomat and expert on US—Cuban relations and African Affairs. She is the author of Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat's Chronicle of America's Long Struggle with Castro's Cuba, which is based on her three years in Havana as the head of the American diplomatic mission. Ambassador Huddleston served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa. She was the American ambassador to Madagascar and to the Republic of Mali; and head of the American diplomatic mission to Cuba — the United States Interests Section — before it was up-graded to an embassy. She was acting ambassador in Ethiopia, Deputy Chief of Mission in Haiti, and Director and Deputy Director of Cuban Affairs at the Department of State. She was awarded the Department of State’s Distinguished Honor Award, the Secretary’s Career Achievement Award, and two Presidential Meritorious Service Award. Vicki was a member of the Obama-Biden transition team and a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow on the staff of former Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM). She was visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution, where she managed a project on United States policy toward Cuba. Prior to joining the State Department, she worked for the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) in Peru and Brazil. She began her overseas career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru. Huddleston earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins School Advanced International Studies and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado. Vicki is the co-author of Learning to Salsa: New Steps in U.S.-Cuba Relations and opinion pieces on Cuba, Mali, and Ethiopia published in The New York Times, The Miami Herald, The Los Angeles Times, The Globe and Mail, and The Washington Post, and a popular speaker. She has two children, Robert a professor at NYU and Alexandra a landscape photographer.

• Deniz Sert

  Deniz Sert

  Deniz Sert is an Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations at Ozyegin University in Istanbul. Before joining OzU, she was a Senior Research Associate at the Migration Research Center, Koç University, MiReKoc. Dr. Sert is an expert on migration issues in Turkey and globally. She has taught and researched at several institutions in Turkey and abroad. She received her B.A. in International Relations from Koç University, an MSc in European Union Policy Making from the London School of Economics, and an MPhil in Political Science from the City University of New York. She got her PhD in Comparative Politics from the City University of New York. She has published extensively on international migration within Turkey and its regions. She holds the Jean Monnet Chair on Migration and Mobility, CHARM (2019-2022). She is also an editor at the leading migration journal, "International Migration."

• Heide Castañeda

  Heide Castañeda

  Heide Castañeda is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida. Her research areas include political and legal anthropology, law and society, medical anthropology, borders, migration, migrant health, citizenship, policing, focusing on the U.S./Mexico border, United States, Mexico, Germany, and Morocco. She is the author of Borders of Belonging: Struggle and Solidarity in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families (Stanford University Press, 2019) and co-editor of Unequal Coverage: The Experience of Health Care Reform in the United States (NYU Press, 2018). Her latest book, Migrant Health: Cross-Disciplinary and Critical Perspectives, is forthcoming with Routledge. Dr. Castañeda has also published dozens of research articles on migration and health care access for immigrant populations. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the Fulbright Program, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.

• JoAnne Wagner

  JoAnne Wagner

  Minister-Counselor (ret.) United States Foreign Service Officer Finishing 27 years in the Foreign Service, rank of Minister-Counselor, JoAnne Wagner most recently led Operation Allies Refuge–Doha efforts as Senior Task Force Director and later as Senior U.S. Government Coordinator, working to bring American citizens, legal permanent residents, and other vulnerable persons from Afghanistan to Qatar and on to new lives in the United States. She also served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Bangladesh and as Consul General in Karachi, Pakistan, with a focus on development, promoting U.S. business, and strengthening people-to-people ties. She served on the Board of Examiners, selecting the next generation of U.S. diplomats; Assistance Coordinator in Ukraine, coordinating U.S. government aid/support; Political Minister-Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the European Union; Deputy Director for Pakistan in Washington; Deputy Political-Military Counselor in Kabul; DCM in Burundi; and XO at USNATO. Ms. Wagner has a Juris Doctor from Saint Louis University and a Masters in National Security Strategy from NDU’s National War College. She is a fan of Broadway musicals and St. Louis Cardinals baseball, and is an occasional amateur composer whose first piece debuted at Brussels’ Palais des Beaux Arts with a 100-voice choir and full symphony orchestra.

• Mariana Sánchez Ramírez

  Mariana Sánchez Ramírez

  Mariana Sánchez Ramírez is a Master of Public Policy candidate at The American University School of Public Affairs. She currently works in the intersection of government and the energy industry on Chevron's Federal and International Government Affairs team in Washington, D.C. Mariana identifies as “The North Americanist,” having been born in Mexico, raised in Florida, and with a demonstrated history of program development centered on Canada-U.S., Mexico-U.S., and North American relations in the think tank industry. Her trilateral perspective has been shaped by her banking, media, and political experiences past and present. Her writings have been published in The New York Times, Medium, and The Wilson Center.

• Robert Sattin

  Robert Sattin

  Robert Sattin, President of The Appleton Group, Lawyer - After over 33 years in the private practice of law in Hartford, CT, Bob came to St. Petersburg where he spent 8 years as the president of The Appleton Group, which developed and ran a network of over 270 law and accounting firms located in 100 countries. In that position, Bob not only interacted with member firms around the world, but also led semi-annual conferences in Europe, N. America, S. America and Asia.