News Brief

Congratulations to Monica Damberg-Ott, Angie Smith, and Shanna Surendra, the Council’s Davis Public Diplomacy Fellows for 2015-2016

Monica Damberg-Ott, Davis Public Diplomacy Fellow for 2015-2016

Monica Damberg-Ott joined the Foreign Service in 2009 as a Public Diplomacy Officer. Since August 2014, she is the Cultural and Educational Programs Coordinator in the Office of Public Diplomacy for the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP/PD). From 2012-2014 she served as a Political and Economic Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Chennai, India and from 2010-2012 she served as a Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Monica worked as an account executive for an advertising firm in New York. She received a B.A. in International Relations from Boston University and a M.A. from the American Graduate School for International Relations and Diplomacy in Paris, France. Monica speaks Polish and French. She is engaged to an Econ-coned Foreign Service Officer whom she met in A-100 class and an August 2015 wedding is planned. Her interests include photography, travel, and fashion.

Angie Smith, Davis Public Diplomacy Fellow for 2015-2016

Angie Smith is a regional policy officer for the Near Eastern Affairs region in the Bureau of International Information Programs, a bureau that develops multimedia and digital products that reach across platforms to connect foreign audiences to U.S. policy priorities through relatable dialogue. She served as Deputy of the Public Diplomacy section in Dublin, Ireland, from 2012-2014, where she worked on a number of initiatives including those involving youth in Northern Ireland and along the border. Previous tours include Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Jerusalem and Athens, Greece as a Foreign Service specialist.  She earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago in film and studied Russian in Ukraine and Russia before joining the Foreign Service.

Shanna Surendra, Davis Public Diplomacy Fellow for 2015-2016

Shanna Dietz Surendra is currently serving as the Desk Officer for Portugal and Malta where she oversees the development and implementation of U.S. policy with European allies. In her previous assignment as Cultural Affairs Officer in Chennai, Ms. Surendra utilized educational and cultural initiatives to further foreign policy priorities and also served as the Consulate’s speechwriter. She joined the Foreign Service in 2009 and fulfilled her consular tour in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ms. Surendra has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Indiana University. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, she worked for the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development; taught English in Cairo, Egypt; and served as Assistant Editor to the academic journal, Perspectives on Politics. Ms. Surendra speaks Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi and Urdu.  Originally from Michigan, she resides with her husband Shravan and son Rahm.