Putting the EVP to Work: Multiplying the Impact of Youth Change Makers
Posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2016 at 11:19 pm.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Robin Lerner with EGLI Corps Fellows (From left to right: Atlas Corps CEO Scott Beale, Fellow Farhad Ahmed Jarral, Fellow Mayada Hassanain Osman, Deputy Assistant Secretary Robin Lerner, Special Advisor for Global Youth Issues Andy Rabens, Fellow Olga Smolenchuk, and Fellow Anna-Kim Robinson.)
The J-1 Exchange Visitor Program provides the U.S. Department of State endless ways to create innovative partnerships and meaningful programs for young professionals around the world. Today, I would like to tell you about an interesting and inspiring public-private partnership the State Department has, thanks to the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program. Last month, we celebrated the one year anniversary of the Emerging Global Leader Initiative (EGLI) – Atlas Corps Fellowship. This fellowship was created as part of President Obama’s Stand with Civil Society agenda. Through this partnership, the State Department committed to working with Atlas Service Corps to bring 100 of the world’s emerging civil society professionals to the United States for 12-month professional fellowship programs under the J-1 training program. The fellowship offers full funding for training programs in civil society, non-profit, and for-profit enterprises, and it exposes the fellows to cutting edge best practices, while incorporating the participants into perhaps the most important network of their lives.
EGLI Atlas Corps Fellows pose for a group photo at event reception.
The aim of the fellowship – and the reason it is a central pillar of the Stand with Civil Society agenda – is that participants leave the program with important new skills and expertise that will allow them to positively impact their communities back home. Each of them has clear goals for paying it forward by strengthening their own civil societies, building innovate local ventures, and bringing disparate communities together.
Deputy Assistance Secretary Robin Lerner engages with an event participant.
Ultimately, the program strives to strengthen civil society around the world by bringing participants together in the United States to build lasting relationships and strong international partnerships, and sending them back home to get to work. The networks they make will stay with them their entire lives, as will the knowledge that the United States invested in them through the Exchange Visitor Program. I am proud that this privately-funded mechanism for exchange is being put to work, turning out high quality future leaders. This is something we can all stand with.
Categories: Program Spotlight
| About Rebecca Pasini Deputy Assistant Secretary for Private Sector Exchange | |
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Rebecca A. Pasini joined the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Private Sector Exchanges in July 2023. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister - Counselor, Ms. Pasini has been an American diplomat since 1997.
Ms. Pasini previously served as the Director of Public and Congressional Affairs in the Bureau of Consular Affairs from 2021-2023. Other Washington assignments have included positions in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, the Office of Foreign Missions, and as a liaison to the Department of Homeland Security. She has also completed multiple overseas tours, including as Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs in Islamabad, Pakistan, and as the Consular Chief in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Belfast, Northern Ireland. Other tours included Mexico City and Kuwait.
A Maryland native, Ms. Pasini has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Indiana University, a master’s degree in National Security and Resource Strategy from the Eisenhower School, National Defense University, and an undergraduate degree from Mary Washington College.
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