UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012 - (Page 32)

Siblings reflect UTD was a perfect college home, and I felt part of the UTD family. Much of that feeling came from professors who were not only mentors, but shepherds who helped me see the world through new eyes. Dr. Anthony Champagne, Dr. Marianne Stewart, and Dr. Wolfgang Bielefeld in particular encouraged me to apply for the Fast Track Masters Program and then the Presidential Management Fellowship. The fellowship brought me to the State Department, where my first assignment involved working on cybersecurity issues and traveling to the Middle East and Asia. Educationally, I found I had been prepared for a world I hadn’t even known existed. The confidence and guidance collected during my time at UTD served me well in Washington, D.C., and then on global assignments. 9/11 changed my path, as it did the lives of so many. Having just returned from Egypt, I was asked to brief then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and his transition team. I began working on public diplomacy issues for the newly appointed undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Charlotte Beers. Beers had been charged with developing a strategy for informing, engaging and influencing foreign publics, and my portfolio included work that ranged from public affairs and diplomatic security to political military and East Asian affairs. My experiences with the federal government were challenging, life-changing. Everywhere I went—which included travel to every continent—I was a faithful ambassador for UTD. My work in D.C. began before the Bush administration came to town, when graduates from Texas schools were few and far between at the State Department. I relished telling the UTD story in roomfuls of Yale, Georgetown, Fletcher and Harvard graduates. I was in middle school when Cari was at UTD, and her enthusiasm for her classes had a profound impact on me. When I started my freshman year at UTD, I enrolled in many of the same government and public policy classes that Cari had taken. The classes were challenging, and it meant so much to have the full support of the faculty. Dr. Champagne, Dr. Edward Harpham and Dr. Stewart were particularly supportive, encouraging me to apply for the Archer Fellowship Program, an internship at the Supreme Court of the United States, and UTD’s traveling moot court team. Each of these experiences enabled me to witness and participate in the institutions I had learned about in the classroom, and to learn things no class can really teach you. For instance, during my internship at the Supreme Court, I gave VIP tours to the Justices’ private guests, and I had the opportunity to witness oral arguments 32 utdallas.edu in the acclaimed “Pledge of Allegiance case,” Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow. I also learned about the “real highest court in the land”—a basketball court in the attic above the Supreme Court courtroom—from the busy law clerks and security guards who were gracious enough to let me join their weekly after-hours basketball games. In the summer of 2003, I met advertising legend Keith Reinhard, now chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide, which ranks among the largest advertising agencies in the world. Keith had started a task force on America’s Brand and was working to find a way to engage the private sector in public diplomacy to augment the government’s efforts. Keith initially hired me for three months to build what would become the global nonprofit Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA). It was a leap from the security of the federal government into the unknown, but the unrestricted private sector offered potential to accomplish messaging that far exceeded anything we could champion in the public sector. And I was inspired by Keith. It is a rare moment when you meet someone who compels action by the strength of their passion. I never looked back. Seven and a half years on, after working with over 100 companies in every sector, I received word from 7X7 San Francisco Magazine that I had been selected for their “Hot 20 Under 40” issue, an annual profile of emerging leaders in the Bay Area. BDA made a real contribution to the field of public diplomacy. We testified, worked with national and global media, forged unique and meaningful partners, and, where appropriate, helped the U.S. government. Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to return to the classroom, this time as an adjunct faculty member for the Master of Public Diplomacy program at the University of Southern California, where I develop and teach graduate courses in corporate diplomacy and geopolitical risk. Recently I was appointed to an adjunct faculty position teaching corporate diplomacy and negotiation for the HULT International Business School in Dubai. Teaching is perhaps the hardest job I’ve taken on. You have to work tirelessly, prepare endlessly, and give so much of yourself to each and every student. I have a new appreciation for the professors I had at UTD. Their service to each of us, their time, attention and dedication—it was such an honor to learn and be inspired by them. We all need to do our part to inspire and engage the next generation, and for me teaching was a natural transition. CARI EGGSPUEHLER GUITTARD BA’96, MPA’97 CARI’S INTERESTS AND CAREER FOLLOWING GRADUATION PROVIDE HER WITH MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO TRAVEL, INCLUDING A VISIT TO EGYPT IN 2010. CHAD EGGSPUEHLER BA’05 http://www.utdallas.edu

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012

UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012
Contents
On Campus
From the Lab
Arts and Culture
Courtside Success
Athletics
Research Is Teaching
Town and Gown
In Your Footsteps: An Alumni Perspective
Alumni Notes
In Memoriam
Hindsight

UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012

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