Smith to Celebrate Women's History Month with Talk by Davis

In celebration of Women's History Month, Smith College is hosting a talk by the Honorable Ruth Davis, director of the Foreign Service Institute and the highest-ranking African-American woman in the Foreign Service.
Davis' talk is titled "The Changing Faces of U.S. Diplomacy: The Impact of Women and Minorities in International Public Policy" and will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, March 6, in Stoddard Auditorium. The event is free, open to the public and wheelchair-accessible.

A career officer in the Foreign Service, Davis has held consular posts in Kenya, Japan, Italy and Spain. As Consul General in Barcelona from 1987 to 1991, she played a significant role in organizing the 1992 Olympic Games and later, by sharing the experience with city officials in Atlanta, was instrumental in that city's successful bid to host the 1996 Olympics.

Both President Clinton and the State Department have honored Davis for her distinguished service as well as for mentoring and developing junior officers. She is president of the Thursday Luncheon group, a committee that monitors the recruitment, assignments, promotion patterns and other employment practices affecting minority staff in the principal foreign affairs agencies.