Themes
Women Who Fled and Came Back to Serve
Former refugees who broke ground as women in American diplomacy.
Breaking ground
Women were long a small minority in the Foreign Service. Among those who changed that were women who had once been refugees, including the first woman to serve as Secretary of State.
Profiles
Madeleine Korbel AlbrightTwice a refugee as a child, she became the first woman to serve as Secretary of State.Martina Anna Tkadlec StrongEscaped Czechoslovakia on a family 'vacation,' waited in a camp near Belgrade, and became ambassador to the UAE.Herro Mustafa GargA Kurdish girl from Erbil who spent two years in a refugee camp and became ambassador to Bulgaria and Egypt.Anne D. PhamCarried out of Saigon at age three on a barge under rocket fire; later served at the U.S. missions in Vietnam and Laos.Hoa TranFled Vietnam at seven through Guam and Wake Island, then spent her career helping refugees in Asia.Dr. Nabila MassoumiHer family crossed out of Afghanistan on foot disguised as nomads; she became a Foreign Service officer.Rina AmiriBecame a refugee as a small child when her family left Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass.Ellie CohanimFled Iran's 1979 revolution as a child refugee and later served as deputy special envoy against antisemitism.Anya Yakhedts BrunsonA Jewish refugee from Minsk who became a Foreign Service Officer.Marina GraysonCame from Kyiv as a refugee and won AFSA's Mark Palmer Award for anticorruption work in Bulgaria.Nikolina KulidzanA refugee from the Bosnian war who became a Foreign Service officer and a published novelist.Rahima KandahariA young political refugee from Afghanistan who became the first Afghan American woman Foreign Service officer.Jessica Adler (Hoang Seang Ear)A four-year-old boat refugee who later helped resettle refugees from the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok.Della HerrmannFled the Iranian revolution as a refugee and joined the Foreign Service after September 11.Tu DangCame from Vietnam as a refugee with her mother and went on to fight child labor at the Department of State.Nhat-Hang Claire DuongEvacuated from Saigon in April 1975 with the families of embassy staff; later a human resources adviser at State.