International Affairs and Leadership Faculty

Degree page

Faculty of the MA in International Affairs and Leadership program include ambassadors, military general officers, and experts in their respective fields. Students have direct access to faculty with first-hand experience and expertise in areas of diplomacy, character-driven leadership, ethics, foreign affairs, intelligence, national security, and economics.

Program Director

Ambassador Roderick Moore

Professor of Practice
Three decades of experience as a diplomat, leader, manager, teacher, and consultant.
Teaches: Human Rights and Realpolitik
Full bio

Program Support Staff

Ashley Wright

Program Manager
ASU Leadership, Diplomacy and National Security Lab (LDNS) in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Full bio

The faculty within the School of Politics and Global Studies and the ASU Leadership, Diplomacy and National Security Lab work very closely with graduate students. The following faculty are associated with the MA in International Affairs and Leadership.

Lieutenant General Benjamin Freakley (ret.)

Special Advisor to the President
More than 36 years of active military service, and was serving as Commanding General, U.S. Army Accessions Command.
Teaches: Character-Driven Leadership, Applied International Leadership: Case Studies
Full bio

Ambassador Michael Polt

Ambassador-in-Residence, Professor of Practice
35-year diplomatic career holding assignments as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Estonia and to Serbia and Montenegro.
Teaches: Character-Driven Leadership, Applied International Leadership: Case Studies
Full bio

Ambassador Edward B. O’Donnell

Professor of Practice
33 year career in the U.S. Foreign Service serving in Latin America, German-speaking Europe and other positions in Washington, D.C.
Teaches: U.S. Diplomacy in Action, The Holocaust and World War II Today, Genocide Prevention, International Negotiations: Trust but Verify
Full bio

Ambassador David Scheffer

Professor of Practice
Former U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, where he led the U.S. delegation to the U.N. talks establishing the International Criminal Court. He has had a 22-year teaching career in international law fields of study.
Full bio

Ambassador Kurt Volker

Distinguished Fellow
Leading expert in U.S. foreign and national security policy with 35 years of experience in a variety of government, academic, and private sector capacities. Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations.
Teaches: Transatlantic Relations: Does Europe Still Matter?
Full bio

William Deere

Distinguished Fellow
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and serves as Senior Congressional Advisor to the Washington, D.C. office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
Teaches: The Role of Congress in U.S. Foreign Policy
Full bio

Chaplain Margaret Kibben

Distinguished Fellow
Retired Navy Rear Admiral with 35 years of experience and presently serving as the 61st Chaplain of the House of Representatives.
Teaches: Religion and Diplomacy
Full bio

Caroline Lynch

Distinguished Fellow
Founder and owner of Copper Hill Strategies, LLC, providing client-focused government relations, strategic planning, legislative, and business development services.
Teaches: The Dark Side of Foreign Policy
Full bio

Ambassador Charles Ray

Distinguished Fellow
Retired U.S. Army Major and former U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe and Cambodia. He also served in the foreign service for 30 years, where he was posted to China, Thailand, Sierra Leona, Vietnam, Cambodia and Zimbabwe.
Full bio

Ambassador Daniel Smith

Distinguished Fellow
Former Foreign Service officer with the highest rank of Career Ambassador, served as the State Department’s Transition Director for the 2020 Presidential Transition and subsequently as Acting Secretary and Acting Deputy Secretary of State
Teaches: Intelligence and National Security
Full bio

Ambassador James Swan

Distinguished Fellow
Former United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and U.S. State Department official

Teaches: The United Nations in the Global Arena
Full bio

Lieutenant General Vern “Rusty” Findley (ret.)

Distinguished Fellow
35 years of active military experience. Findley's last three assignments with the U.S. Air Force include: Vice Commander, Air Mobility Command; Director, Strategy, Plans and Policy (J5) for Headquarters, U.S. Central Command, MacDill AFB, FL; and, Deputy Chief of Staff, Strategy Plans and Assessment for Multi-National Force-Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq.
Teaches: Leading in a Dynamic International Environment
Full bio

Lieutenant General John Goodman (ret.)

Distinguished Fellow
Retired from the U.S. Marine Corps following 42 years of active and reserve military service. Currently the Senior Advisor to U.S. Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the U.S. Lead Oversight Agency.
Teaches: Leading in a Dynamic International Environment
Full bio

Dr. Lee Voth-Gaeddert

Distinguished Fellow
A professional environmental engineer, U.S. registered sanitarian, certified systems engineer and a certified emergency responder with 10+ years of experience in solving complex global challenges.
Teaches: Diplomacy Lab
Full bio

Dr. Diana Putman

Distinguished Fellow
Retired senior foreign service officer who worked four decades in international development. In her last position at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), served as the Acting Assistant Administrator of the Africa Bureau in charge of programming over $8 billion of assistance across sub-Saharan Africa.
Teaches: Foreign Aid: Altruism or National Security?

Maya Wang

Distinguished Fellow
Associate director in the Asia division at Human Rights Watch. Wang has researched and written extensively on a wide range of issues in China including the use of torture, arbitrary detention, human rights defenders, civil society, disability rights, and women’s rights.
Teaches: Decoding China

Admiral Keith Smith

Distinguished Fellow
United States Coast Guard veteran of 41 years, having retired in August 2022 from his last position as Deputy Commander of Atlantic Area. His expertise lies in Homeland Security, Counter Terrorism, Drug Interdiction, and Emergency Management with leadership and mentorship as his core specialty.
Full bio

Dr. Ray Walser

Distinguished Fellow
Served as a career Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State from January 1980 to September 2007. As a political officer, he was assigned to Managua, Nicaragua, Bogota, Colombia, Guadalajara, Mexico, San Jose, Costa Rica, and Cape Town, South Africa.
Teaches: Western Hemisphere: Good Neighbors, Tough Challenges