It was a proud moment for Associate Professor Christianna Nichols Leahy when her former student Jennifer Leigh Disney took the podium as an expert speaker at the Great Decisions Discussion Program sponsored by McDaniel College.

No one was surprised that the 1993 summa cum laude graduate and recipient of the Eloise and Lowell Ensor Award for Graduate Study could stand at the same podium as ambassadors and statesmen. Everyone knew that Disney would ably discuss the political history of Brazil and its emerging role in the modern world at the national program designed to encourage discussion of global issues.

Still, Disney’s mentor grinned with pride as Disney confidently held her audience in rapt attention.

In March two former U.S. ambassadors will present noontime lectures as part of the on-going Great Decisions Discussion Program held in McDaniel Lounge. On March 8 Ambassador Edward Dillery will discuss UN Reform, and on March 13, Ambassador David Newton will present “Iraq: A Country the U.S. Can't Seem to Ignore.”

A dual major in Psychology and Political Science here at the College, Disney earned her Ph.D. at the City University of New York where her doctoral dissertation on Third World feminisms and global women’s movements received top national awards, and is slated for a future book.  Since 2002 she teaches Political Science at Winthrop University in South Carolina, where she also advises several student groups and is Board president of a community resource center of the extremely impoverished Blackmon Road Community.

The March 8 speaker, Dillery retired from the Foreign Service in 1993 after nearly four decades with tours in embassies and consulates as consular officer, economic officer, political officer and Deputy Chief of Mission. His overseas posts included Japan, Belgium, Vietnam, England, Cyprus and Fiji. In the Department of State, Dillery served in the Bureau of East Asian Political Military Affairs; and was Director of the Office of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus Affairs in the Bureau of European Affairs and later was Director of the Office of United Nations Political Affairs in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.

Newton, currently an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., retired from a 36-year career having served 22 years in the Arab world. He had served as ambassador to Yemen and as the first ambassador to Iraq following the resumption of U.S. diplomatic relations. During his career, he received a Presidential Meritorious Service award for his Iraq assignment. He is a graduate of Harvard College, U. of Michigan and the National War College.

Developed by the Foreign Policy Association in 1954, the Great Decision program is the longest standing and largest grassroots world affairs educational program of its kind. Now in its third year at McDaniel College, this program is designed to encourage discussion of global issues.