{"id":878,"date":"2021-02-15T15:34:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T15:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hlsorgs3stg.wpenginepowered.com\/armed\/?p=878"},"modified":"2024-10-20T22:56:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T22:56:52","slug":"afa-speaker-series-leading-through-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/2021\/02\/15\/afa-speaker-series-leading-through-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"AFA Speaker Series: Leading Through Uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

2020 was a tough year, but the AFA found at least one silver lining!\u00a0 The virtual environment, coupled with the global pandemic, racial tension and political divide in America, and rising friction with powers abroad, led us to create the organization\u2019s first speaker series \u2013 \u201cLeading Through Uncertainty.\u201d\u00a0 We sought to bring in successful leaders from a variety of fields like medicine, law, international relations, politics, economics, military, and the environment.\u00a0 The goal was simple: to hear about, and learn from, their personal experiences in times of crisis.<\/p>\n

Last fall, we were honored to speak with Retired Lieutenant General Nadja West, the 44th<\/sup> Surgeon General of the United States Army, and Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter, international lawyer and foreign policy analyst.<\/p>\n

Several of our Board members had the pleasure of meeting General West last year through the Harvard Kennedy School, and immediately knew she\u2019d be perfect for this series. Her accomplishments are astounding; the first African-American female three-star, first African-American Army Surgeon General, and the highest ranking woman to have graduated from West Point, to name just a few.\u00a0 General West has twenty years of experience in executive leadership and disaster management, and played an integral role in forming the DoD response to the Ebola crisis as Surgeon General.\u00a0 Drawing on her expertise as a physician and former Army officer, we invited General West to discuss leadership tactics and civilian-military partnership during the uncertainty of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, General West kicked off \u201cLeading through Uncertainty\u201d with resounding success.\u00a0 She spoke at length about effective leadership \u201cnot by the sword and shield, but by the head and heart.\u201d\u00a0 We talked about practicing leadership on every level in an organization, and learning to maneuver in a multi-generational environment.\u00a0 She then talked about the international landscape, and how the strategic counter to other world powers may lie within mutually assured collaboration rather than destruction.\u00a0 To conclude, General West urged us to practice mindfulness in our daily lives \u2013 wonderful advice for stressed out law students!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anne-Marie Slaughter then joined us in mid-November, and her talk was equally fantastic.\u00a0 Dr. Slaughter graduated cum laude<\/em> from HLS in 1985 (the same year as our law school\u2019s Dean, who kindly introduced our guest!).\u00a0 She returned to direct the International Legal Studies Program from 1994 to 2002, before serving as the Dean of Princeton\u2019s School of Public and International Affairs and working as Director of Policy Planning for the State Department under former President Obama.\u00a0 Currently, Dr. Slaughter is both President and CEO of the think tank New America.<\/p>\n

As a fellow lawyer, political scientist, and foreign policy analyst, we asked Dr. Slaughter about political leadership and international policy concerns in the midst of a global pandemic.\u00a0 She spoke about American \u201crenewal,\u201d looking backward and facing our history while simultaneously looking forward, toward solutions.\u00a0 She urged us to focus on renovating the broken infrastructure at home \u2013 doing more than simple \u2018reform,\u2019 but less than revolution.\u00a0 Dr. Slaughter recommended that we read Team of Teams<\/em> by General Stanley McChrystal and, like General West, to be leaders wherever we can; she urged us to use our natural talents and work in our own communities, focusing on change at local levels.\u00a0 Perhaps her most impactful advice was telling us to be \u201cradically honest\u201d about our failings and when things are right, to keep them right; when they\u2019re wrong, to put them right.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Encouraged by the impact of General West and Dr. Slaughter, the AFA will continue the \u201cLeading Through Uncertainty\u201d series this spring.\u00a0 Stay tuned to see which incredible leaders join us virtually in the spring of 2021!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2020 was a tough year, but the AFA found at least one silver lining!\u00a0 The virtual environment, coupled with the global pandemic, racial tension and political divide in America, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1968,"featured_media":1064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/files\/2021\/02\/Dr_Anne-Marie_Slaughter-300x300-1.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5BZbI-ea","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1968"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/armedforces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}