Illinois State University will welcome Atlantic Council Distinguished Fellow, J. Peter Pham to present the annual Hibbert R. Roberts Lecture. It will take place Tuesday, October 10 at 7 p.m. in Schroeder Hall Room 138. It is free, open to the public, and sponsored by the Department of Politics and Government.
Ambassador Pham served as the first-ever U.S. Special Envoy for the Sahel Region of Africa with the rank of ambassador from 2020-21. He is the first Vietnamese American to achieve the rank of U.S. ambassador.
Pham is currently a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council and a senior advisor at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University. He is also a member of the board of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, a non-executive director of Africell Global Holdings and of Rainbow Rare Earths, a strategic advisor to dClimate and to High Power Exploration (HPX), as well as a senior advisor at Rose Lake Capital.
Pham is the recipient of numerous honors and awards from African countries in recognition of contributions made over the course of his career to strengthening relations between the United States and Africa.
The annual Hibbert R. Roberts Lecture is organized by the Department of Politics and Government in memory of Roberts, who was a faculty member in the department from 1969-92. The lecture brings a leading academic or activist to speak about their work on public policy related issues.
