Biography Alyse Nelson has dedicated her life to strengthening women's voices around the world. She is the Assistant Director of the Vital Voices Global Democracy Initiative. This initiative grew out of the of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Bejing in September of 1995. Since its inception four years ago, the initiative has created new government programs and policies to support the political and economic advancement of women throughout the world. Vital Voices was created by the President’s Interagency Council on Women, and enjoys the active support of both the First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Alyse has been working with Vital Voices since the beginning, helping to foster unprecedented partnerships, and developing a global network of people in both the private and public sector who support women building strong democracies.

MOUNT MADONNA SCHOOL Interview with Alyse Nelson Deputy Director, President's Interagency on Women Washington, D.C. May 18, 2000 Alison Alderdice: When did you realize that you were going to dedicate your life to helping women around the world? Alyse Nelson: My goodness. Lets start with the whopper! I didn't think it was possible to decide to dedicate myself to something like that. I think that you can be really passionate about something in your life and not be able to see where that fits. When I was in college, I thought, well maybe I'll go work in a consulting firm, or I'll go to graduate school, because I'm not sure what I want to do, which is a really bad thing to do; don't do that. Don't go to school because you don't see any other options. Then I heard about the Beijing Women's Conference, which was the UN First World Conference on Women. Fifty thousand women were going to gather in China to talk about human rights. I thought wow! That was really going to be a fascinating experience. And not only just women, but these were women advocates and activists around the world. I thought, that's going to be amazing. They talked a lot about how many young women were going to be there. I thought, how amazing would it be to meet a woman just like me from Somalia, or from Latin America, and hear about what her life is like. I wanted so much to understand what international women's issues were all about, but there weren't any classes really offered, and there wasn't a lot of newspaper coverage. Since there weren't a lot of classes you could take on issues around the world and how they were affecting women, and I thought the best thing to do would be to go to this conference and meet these women. Then I could find out what this is all about. Going to the conference was really a transformational experience. First off, I went alone. I tried to get my sister to come with me at the last minute, but it was too late to register. That was pretty scary. I didn't actually get the right kind of visa for the Chinese government. I got a tourist visa, rather than a conference visa, so I wasn't exactly kosher there. I was really scared. But I remember flying from Singapore to Beijing, and the energy on that plane was incredible; it was just full with women who were going to that conference. Fifty thousand women around the world, coming together to talk about where we were going to go in the next century, which is just so amazing. And here I was twenty-one years old, I was in between my junior and senior year at college, and I thought wow, this is going to change my life for sure. It rained the entire week. I learned a tremendous amount. Many women took me under their wing and were really helpful to me. I ended up staying in an Africa section. The Chinese government wanted to sort of keep us all with our people, I don't know why, so they made these barracks where people would stay. It was so new the cement was still wet. They built up a whole town for these fifty thousand women who were staying. They didn't want us actually in Beijing, so they moved this big conference to this outside venue in Wy Ro, which is the town that existed on no map before this conference. We stayed in these barracks's, as my dad referred to them, and we had a little padlock that looked like something you'd find in a cereal box, on the outside of our door. So basically, they could lock us in, but we couldn't lock ourselves in. It was pretty interesting. I roomed with two women. It was an Africa section that I ended up in just randomly. Someone actually gave me their room. It was incredible. These African women are just amazing. They would just sing all night, and they wore these incredible gowns that they had painted just for the conference. I remember, the women I stayed with, one from Eritrea, one from Ethiopia, and if you know the history on these countries, they've been at civil war for decades. And here were these two women rooming together, and at first I recognized that there was some tension between them, but by the end of the conference they were going home and dedicated to working together. I remember sitting late at night in this tent in the middle of China, and hearing about how this young woman who was my age had to flee her country because she was going to be basically sold to another family to be a bride of this man that she didn't want to marry, and how she didn't have control over her life at all. I realized how lucky I was, that every decision I make, from going to China, to picking the school I wanted to go to, to everything in my life, I get to decide for the most part. Then I listened to this woman who at seven years old was told basically what was going to happen in her life. And she fled from Somalia, I think to Kenya first, when she was seven. Seven years old, and she left home because she didn't want to have to lead this life. Somehow she got herself to China, and here I was in this tent, in the middle of the rain, in the middle of the night, talking to these women. It was just so, so transformative and incredible, and I thought, I would love to dedicate myself to this. I mean I don't know what my life holds, certainly, but I would love to be involved in these issues. I would love to work on these issues. I'm so passionate about these issues, but I didn't think there was any job to do with something like that. When I was at the conference I actually met Theresa Loar, who you all met, and she was the head of the US delegation in Beijing. At one point, I was working on a young women's bill of rights for the conference. They didn't really include a lot of issues that affected young women in their platform, so we decided to do a separate sort of the young women's bill of rights. It talked about education and the sort of things that are important to us. I was on a panel at the actual UN conference in Beijing and presented this. Theresa didn't know my name, I knew her name, but I didn't know what she looked like. She didn't know my name, but she knew what I looked like, because she heard me talk on the panel. So we sort of knew of each other at the conference. Then when I went back, I heard her speak at another conference. Then I invited her to come up and speak at a follow-up forum that I was doing to interest young women in Boston, where I was going to school at the time, engaged in what happened in Beijing. I first talked to Theresa on the phone, and as you all know, Theresa is just a fabulous person. She's really warm and wonderful. So, I'm calling up this woman at the White House, to ask her if she can come to my little conference up at my college. I remember I was so nervous, and she happened to pick up the phone, which is really random that the director of the office would answer the outside line. I started talking to what I thought was her assistant, just sort of talking, and feeling really comfortable about what I was saying. Then she says oh, yeah, I'd love to come. You know, and I'm thinking, my gosh, I'm talking to the director. We talked a little bit more about my conference. I really had pictured her maybe a little bit snobby because she's this White House woman, you know. But she came to the conference and she was so warm. She talked to me a little bit more about what their office does, and I heard about what the President's Council does. After my conference, she invited me to come down and work with her. And of course, in the beginning she said just come down for six months. We're going to do this big satellite broadcast, One Year After Beijing, looking at the progress we've made. We'd love to have really dynamic and interested young women who are passionate about this to help us get more young women involved. I came down, I thought okay, six months, unpaid internship at the White House; I was going to go to graduate school, but I thought, you know what, that's pretty cool. So I went down and did that, and I really thought it would be six months. But here I am almost five years later. Once you get involved in these kinds of issues that you're passionate about, you have a really hard time walking away from them. That's the long answer of how I got involved in all this. I think that I've had an amazing time. I've been able to meet some of the most amazing women. When you go out there, you realize, this is why I'm doing this! I'm helping to change this woman's life, and this is pretty incredible. I think the strides we've made, because we have a Secretary of State like Madeleine Albright, and a First Lady like Hillary Clinton are tremendous. We're working with two extremely dynamic women who say something, and then they call us and say you're going to carry that out, right? They're going to push to carry out the rhetoric they put forward. It has allowed us to make major inroads. It's incredible. Dov Rohan: If you were hiring someone to do your job, what qualities would you look for? Alyse Nelson: Passion! Big passion, and that's hard because I hire a lot of interns to come into our office. Someone can have a stellar resume, but if I'm talking to them and I think, would they photocopy forever, because they're so excited about the document they're photocopying? I mean, when I walked into our office on my first day as an unpaid intern, I saw a picture of the First Lady speaking in Beijing. When I was at the conference I didn't actually get into the room where she was speaking, I was sort of on the outside little room, but I could hear her. After her speech, I was crying. It was so amazing, this speech she gave to all these women from around the world. It was just incredible. I'd never been so proud to be American. It sounds really trite, but really, it was a pretty amazing moment. I didn't know what she looked like that day, or what she was wearing. I walked into the office, and there was a picture of her speaking in Beijing, and I just started crying. I realized that I was getting to work in this office, and carry out what she cares about. It's just amazing! I always look for that, I would look for someone who loves this so much. That's all you need. I mean, you can learn everything else, but you can't learn passion. I couldn't work our fax machine. I was getting blank pages and they called Theresa and said, "I'm getting blank pages from your intern." So you can learn anything, but you can't learn that. Katie Fayram: In Tuesday's interview with Theresa Loar, she told us that now her work is telling these stories, telling your story about the women that you've met and the women that you've influenced. So after this, what do you see for the next step in Vital Voices? Alyse Nelson: Well, I think Vital Voices has done amazing work to really crack the foreign policy system. As you may have noticed, walking around the State Department, there's certainly a lot of men here, there are also a lot of women, but there are certainly a lot more men in higher level positions. Except for the women who surround the Secretary, her deputy chief of staff, her chief of staff, her counsel, are all women and I think that's great progress. Anyway, I think that for Vital Voices, it's been astounding to really crack that system, to really integrate women into foreign policy. You know, we're getting cables in from post every day, talking about trafficking in women, violence against women, women's political right of participation. No longer are people saying why am I worried about what is happening to women in that country? Now they're saying to us, oh, my gosh, can you help me help my women? When I first came to the State Department, Theresa said your job is going to be to really track the cable traffic. There was no cable traffic on women. There were no cables that were coming in from our embassies. Cable traffic is our reporting system from the embassies. There wasn't anything saying well this is what's happening to the women. We started sending cables out, saying, well what about the women? Is there violence against women in your country? We had to start asking questions, and we realized we were probing the system. I think that it took four years, but at this point we really are consultants to this institution, where they come to us and we help them. We're not having bang down the doors anymore, and that's pretty astounding. What I think the next step for Vital Voices is to look at how do we do that outside of the US government? How do we influence other governments, which certainly we do from our own government to an extent. But how can we support more of their work? How do we work with them better, in getting them to set up similar systems like we did with our President's Interagency Council on Women. How can we work with the private sector? Our economy is in great shape; how can we look at all these new dot.com folks who are making tons of money, and say you should invest in these issues. We're really looking at sort of taking it to the next step, which is really gaining mainstream support for these issues, where no longer where people will only talk about these issues as feminist issues, but they'll say these are issues that are the smart thing to look at. They're not just women's issues because dealing with them is helping us build strong economies, stronger democracies, stronger political systems. Integrating women is not only the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do, as the Secretary always says. That's what I think the next step is for Vital Voices. Vital Voices is a group of women and men from the private sector, corporations and non-governmental organizations, and individuals who really care. They wonder if when the First Lady's not the First Lady anymore, and the Secretary of State's not the Secretary of State anymore, will this continue in government? It may, it may not. We think it will because it has so much clout. People really recognize that name brand, Vital Voices, as being the women's foreign policy, democracy-building effort. But we want to make sure it really does continue, so we're going to be basically building a 501c3 (non-profit) right now, called the Vital Voices Global Partnership. It's pretty incredible; they're getting major private sector investors, and they've gotten communications companies engaged. There's a lot of support out there for these issues, and I think it's all a matter of communicating, getting the support. Jahmin Lerum: Your group has particular foreign policy initiatives that relate to women. Are there times when the dominant foreign policy conflicts with the work you're doing? How do you deal with those situations? Alyse Nelson: When you say dominant foreign policy, what do you mean by that? Mr. Maillard: In other words, you have a particular line of reasoning in terms of what you're presenting, and then there are the broader foreign policy initiatives. Do those two ever come into conflict? Alyse Nelson: Certainly, yes. I see what you're saying. Our brand of foreign policy is democracy and peace-building. We can't always be or act in the most peaceful ways that we want to as a government. Sometimes we have to intervene, or take action that maybe some of the women we work with in other countries would heavily disagree with. I've been in a lot of situations, both from people that I meet at conferences and others. For example, my best friend is the daughter of the first democratic president elected in Nigeria. He actually died in the arms of Thomas Pickering on the eve of his release from prison. The State Department was coming to him to discuss issues, and he actually died right then. Some people were skeptical about his death. Was he poisoned, or was it just because he was treated so terribly, was he very sick? He was in prison for a long time after he was elected as the first democratic president. He was very much like the Kennedy of Nigeria almost. My friend is one of his daughters. I actually found out that he had died before she did because it had come in a cable, and there was some buzz. She really felt that our government acted too late, that we needed to really support him and support his democratic cause before that. She was working in the U.S. to get international attention to the plight of her family, but both her mother and father are now dead. They were great human rights activists and democracy builders. Here is someone who is my best friend, and she was really upset because she felt we acted too late. There have definitely been times where what we do, and what I believe, may not necessarily be the same thing. It happens to any large institution, not just in government or public service. But I think people need to realize that you're also an individual. You just need to make that personal connection with people, and that creates situations where people can learn. I was at a peace training for women in Croatia and women approached me and said why are you doing this bombing? They were anti-Milosevic women, but they still asked why are you bombing us? There's no answer that I can really give to that. I don't know what was said, why the actions were taken, and I'm not going to sit here and tell them in a very stern and cold way, this is why we took the action. The only thing that I can do at that point is bring it to a more personal level and say yeah, I'm really and take it back a step to the level where you and I are just people, and that's the system. Do you think that I made that decision? Is it one person that makes that decision often? No, it is a series of things. Do I know everything that went into that? No. Can I explain? I'm not even going to attempt to explain why your cousin is dead, or whoever it is. No, I'm not even going to go there. You just can't. Chris Sun: What do you feel is the most significant change that you have brought about in your work with Vital Voices,? Alyse Nelson: Well, I don't like to think that I'm personally bringing about change but I'm supporting these women to bring about change. I think it was one of you who actually said it, in the interview with Theresa Loar, when you talked about it as being a catalyst. That's precisely what it is. We can bring the right people together. Certainly the government is a powerful force. You can bring governments together, and we can bring high level officials together on these issues that maybe never would have come together. But we are not going to be the people who make the change on the ground. We're a catalyst to bring the right people together, and build the right partnerships, and set the right environment and tone. We leave it to the women, and encourage the women, and support the women in making the change, and working with their governments, or their private sector corporations. I think you might want a specific example, is that what you're looking for? Probably where I felt that I had the greatest impact was in working with the women in Northern Ireland. I know Theresa went into that a little bit, but it was wonderful to be part of the peace agreement in Northern Ireland. Certainly it's not all worked out, but the women there are pretty amazing. They spent thirty years building infrastructures in the communities to support peace, and now here it is. Mostly men are now sitting down at the decision-making table and putting together a peace agreement, and not including the women. Us coming in, with the great powers of the First Lady and Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Mo Nowlam (phonetic), and saying that they should include the women, because the women are the ones who are going to carry this down to the community, and get consensus and support for it. Secretary Albright always says that if you really want democracy, you've got to get the women, because the women are going to direct the community. They control it. They control the grassroots community that has to spread democracy at the very bottom that will rise up. That's the way democracy has to happen. Laura Johnson: You've spoken a lot about the women that you reach. What type of women do you want to target with your message, and who do you think responds best to what you have to say? Alyse Nelson: I really want to target young women. I mean it may be somewhat biased, because when I first came into this job, I was always set on trying to get the young women involved in their future. Here I was, this twenty-two year-old saying this, and people didn't always take me seriously. Now they just do it, because I've been saying it for so long, I don't need to say it anymore. In Vital Voices we always make sure that at least thirty percent of the people we include in our activities are young women under thirty. And they're always the hit. They may introduce the First Lady, or present some sort of report from young people at the conference. I think that the young people that I've met around the world are the single reason why I love this work so much, and why I just can't seem to walk away from it. It just seems impossible to do that, because of so many young women. I just want to tell you one story of one young woman. There is this young woman from Somalia whose family lived in Kenya when the war broke out, and she was I think twenty-one years old. She decided that she was going to move back. Her mother said no, no, no, don't go. She said look, I'm either going to leave with your blessing or I'm going to leave in the middle of the night. I'm going back to Somalia to work with people there. She arrived there, twenty-one years old, and built an organization, which fostered peace within the community in Somalia. She started working in Somalia to build this peace organization, and eventually she started talking to the militiamen who were basically boys fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, etc. She started talking to them on her way to work and she started to convince them to give up the fight. She actually started an organization in which she got a hundred and fifty of these young boys, militiamen, to turn over their arms, guns, grenades, all of their weapons, in exchange for an education. She told them look, you think the future's in that gun, you think the power is in that gun, when actually the power is in education and economic development. One day you're going to realize that. Now, you can give me your gun now, and I'll keep it for you, and I'll teach you how to read, write, and speak English. If at any point you think that this is not a good idea, I'll give it back to you. But I'm going to keep it, and let's just see what happens. I talked with her probably about six months ago, and she told me that all one hundred and fifty of those boys, former militiamen, are now working in different community centers. None of them are involved in the militia anymore. She can't really go back to Somalia, because the bosses of these boys want her dead. I think the reason why I find her so amazing is that she knows this is right, this is what I'm passionate about. It may not be the smart thing to do, but it's the right thing to do. It's certainly very dangerous, but I've met so many young women around the world who are just doing it. They are on the pulse of political, social, and economic change around the world, and they're just doing it. They're not saying, you know, is this okay that I do this? They're just out there, and they're doing it, and I wish more young women and young men in this country would take that initiative. There are certainly young men like this as well, I've just gotten to meet all the young women. I don't want to exclude men, but I think it's the young people that are a nation's greatest creative resource, and the world's greatest creative resource. I think that young people in other countries, in many countries around the world are really still sort of fighting in the trenches, and their stories are so inspirational. I think that if young people in this country, who for the most part have it pretty good and get to make a lot of their own decisions and choices in life, knew some of these stories, they would become enthralled in what's going on in these countries where change was going on. I think a great way to bring young people into foreign policy and foreign affairs is through the story of young people the same age as them. When I talk with them I find we have the same interests, but yet our lives we lead are completely different, and how inspirational their lives are. Karl Holzknecht: You keep mentioning all these different women you have met from these completely different cultures. Despite their diverse backgrounds do you think there are common issues and traits that all women share all over the world? Alyse Nelson: I think so. They want to live good lives and they want their children to live good lives. It's not really about them. I think a lot of these people think that women's issues, or feminist issues are about them. I don't think that's really what it's about, at least in the areas that I work on. I feel, and I think the women around the world that I've gotten to meet through Vital Voices and the State Department feel the same way, that it is for and by women who want a better life for their families, communities, countries, and the world. They know that if we can invest in a girls' education, or a loan to start my small business, or if I can live and not worry if my children are going to be killed on the street, or whatever it may be--Then my life, their lives, our world will be better. Alicia Weston-Miles: When Theresa Loar talked with us she was just so positive and just so excited about her organization. I wanted to know what were some of the real challenges that were significant in starting up this organization? I'm sure along the way there must be some bumps that you hit. Alyse Nelson: Right. Well it's been a lot of fun working with someone like Theresa every day. We sort of feed off each other, and the other people in the office. This work is certainly very rewarding and a lot of fun, the people you get to meet and work with are incredible. The fun is what keeps us going, because it's all very hard. We have very little resources, as you keep hearing, for the State Department and foreign policy. When we first came into the State Department, these issues were not the issues people were really accepting. We had to be spinning these issues a little bit. Now I don't think we need to do that as much because it's already happening, but just to get people in this system to buy on to these issues. For example our office in State Department, our symbol is called S/PICW. We're part of the Secretary's office, and then we're the President's Interagency Council on Women. Well, can anyone guess what our nickname is? The Spice Girls. That is what people around the building called us. Now none of us knew this, okay. I went into the office one day, and this guy is sitting in there, and he starts talking to me. He said there was going to be a meeting, and everyone from such and such would be there, and Theresa Loar and those Spice Girls too. We're trying to create something new. We're all trying to work in a little bit different and more creative way, as we like to think of ourselves. Certainly it is led by someone who is fresh, enthusiastic, and inspirational. It was pretty funny. Aaron Jacobs-Smith: Can you tell us about a time when you felt that all your hard work had really paid off because you see that you have really changed someone's life? Alyse Nelson: Oh, boy. The job is really hard and it requires a lot of time and patience and struggle, but it's so rewarding, and I get to see the rewards so often. I get to see real change. People call me from all over the world saying stuff like, "Oh, my gosh, I have to tell you! We just came back from the Vital Voices conference in Latin America. We went back to our home in Haiti, we started the Hundred Haitian Women for Vital Voices Association, and we have a website. Now we're going throughout the Caribbean to build this massive effort, and five new women are going to run for elective office there. I just wanted to let you know that." I love it when things like that happen, and we were just the catalyst. We just told these women, you can do it. Many of these women will go back to their homes with a "I'm with Hillary Clinton" type thing, and they'll use that. They really will, and we encourage them to because she would want them to do that. I mean I have so much respect for the First Lady because she realizes her power. She uses that power to empower other people. She really does. That to me is true leadership. The First Lady knows the effect of her presence. If she visits that little women's micro-credit institution in India that doesn't have any power, or running water, and then the government finds out that the First Lady of the United States is going to come--and that's what she's going to see of India--they're going to build that place up, give it electricity, water, etc, and she knows that. It's really astounding to see that change when you go out on the pre-advance, and you look at what the site is that she is going to see, and you go back, and it's like, it was a little tiny hut, but now wait a minute, it turned into this palace! Then she's like, I thought we were going to a hut.(laughter) Dante Branciforte: Theresa Loar described the work you do as a partnership, an exchange of advice and ideas, and can you share with us something you've learned from other women? Alyse Nelson: I think the women in Northern Ireland do the community building better than anybody else. They're good at listening and negotiating with other people, and that's something that I think American women, all Americans, could certainly learn. These women are so courageous around the world and they really teach you. Here in the USA you're going to go to work until such and such time, and you maybe didn't get to eat dinner until two o'clock in the morning, but in the end you got to eat dinner, and you got to sleep in your bed, and your life is good. You get to work on something you're passionate about, and here's this woman who's been in prison for three years. But then she comes out and she's still doing it. So I think courage is probably the biggest thing that I've learned from these women. I certainly think it is a partnership. I don't think Americans have all the answers, certainly not. Americans, men and women alike have been involved in some of the trainings that we've done, I think they get more out of it sometimes than the women actually do. They come back and they're so enthusiastic, they'll be like, can I go again sometime? When is the next time you're going to do one of these things? That's one thing about this job, is when I ask someone to do favors for me, they want to do it. It is such good work that people don't say no. If I ask them, oh, can you do a training for our women, and they say oh, yes, yes, yes! It's great to have that energy out there. That's one of the reasons we know that Vital Voices will go on, in whatever form, whether in the government or the private sector, because we've tapped into American women and men who want to serve. They want to give back. They think they really are gaining something. It is not just that they're feeling good, it's that they're getting something; it's that they're really learning things. Heather Nelson: We've talked before, and you told me that you talked to a lot of young people that are making a lot of money and maybe working in the computer industry--And these people, because they're young, they have a lot of idealism and they want to serve, they want to help. Alyse Nelson: Yes, definitely. That's a big reason why we get the support of corporations. For example, McKenzie and Company is really involved in Vital Voices. It does strategic consulting for us. They have given us tons of resources, and one time at one of these meetings I said to the senior partner, I know that you all love Vital Voices, that it's all great, but why do you do this? Just between you and me? Why do you really do this? Why do you do Vital Voices? She's said, well honestly, that the women in this company, and the men, because the women are so excited, love Vital Voices, and get excited about it. When they're working on chemical companies, and how to make those chemical companies run better, every day, they start talking about how they can transfer those same skills that they've learned on how to make that company work better to helping this Vital Voices institution get their message out, or better strategy for the key issues we're going to deal with every year. They get so excited about lending those skills to something that's a good cause. She said to me that the biggest problem with consulting is that they lose a lot of people, especially women. I mean no offense to the men here, but this is straight from this partner, she said that a lot of times, the women will leave because they want to go and do something that they can believe in. Commonly that means they're going to go and take those skills to run their own business. You know, start a dot.com, whatever. You'll notice a lot of the women CEOs, like Heidi Miller, who was the chief financial officer of Citibank, or Citygroup, the largest financial institution in the world, she left to go and be one of the senior people at Priceline.com. Why? Because she's going to get to really influence that, and that's what's happening is that a lot of the women are leaving to really have impact. So if they see that women will stay in this big corporation by giving a little bit of time to have impact, to do something they believe in, then they'll do that. So it's a smart thing for corporations. There's a lot of signs that point to Vital Voices' potential to broaden the resources that currently are going to women's issues, and that it's just going to be something really welcome in the private sector. Mr. Maillard: You are 'meaning makers' You're helping to make meaning, and that is always an essential ingredient in a life. That's great. What's going to happen in the future? Hillary Clinton is going to move on to the Senate, and-- Alyse Nelson: It's looking good. Mr. Maillard: It's looking very good. Alyse Nelson: I just think she's a very strong candidate. Mr. Maillard: Madeleine Albright obviously will finish her. This seems to me to be a vital foreign policy area. But it's an emerging area, and it's a new area, so the question is, will there be someone to shepherd what's been started here at the State Department, while Vital Voices essentially becomes an NGO? Alyse Nelson: Well one of the things we're trying to do is really get the word out, so that there's private sector support for public sector, that being the government's, ongoing engagement with Vital Voices. We've made a lot of inroads and sort of footprints that really can't be erased. We've really communicated to the foreign policy community and to all of our embassy officers, and as Ben said, all these senior people that will continue with their careers are still going to be here. That's the majority of the State Department, people that will be here beyond this administration and have taken this cause up. There's no office or special person, but I think Theresa had mentioned to you that her position of senior coordinator for international women's issues was created by Congress, so it will stay. It's not tied to the administration. Theresa herself is a presidential appointee, so somebody else will take on that job, unless a new president came in and said you're doing so good, keep going. It's just a hard job. She wears many hats, and as she told you, she travels a lot and it's nice to be with her kids. So that will be a decision she would have to make. I don't really know what's going to happen. I think it has had so much popularity in this country, in the State Department, and around the world, that people really will be watching to see if it goes on. This administration has had such a stellar record on women's issues, both in this country and around the world. We are really working on telling that story, and not just because we want to get someone of the same administration into elective office. That's not the reason. The reason is, we don't want any of this stuff to be forgotten in a new administration. Whoever it may be, we want to make sure the record stands, this is what happened. If you're not going to do the same, or build on it, you're going backwards. We're trying to write a Vital Voices book. Student: How do you think we can ensure equality for women at higher levels of government? Alyse Nelson: In this country, or around the world? Student: Both. Alyse Nelson: I think it has to start at the grassroots level. It's different in this country than it is around the world, because this country there are a lot of women in appointed office, particularly with this administration. Like the Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, who I know you're going to meet, a little bit later. But when we look at our elected officials, we fall pretty short of many countries around the world, who got the right to vote and run for elected office a lot later than we did, and are a lot farther ahead than we are. Which is not too inspiring. There was a campaign called Why Not a Woman? Which is a White House project, that was trying to get in the next ten years a woman into the presidency, or a woman at least as one of the major party candidates for the presidency. But quite honestly, it's my belief that there aren't enough women in those high level positions, like governor or senator, which men usually use as a jumping off point. Often a governor or senator will go on, and run for president, or vice president. There aren't enough women. The pool is not wide enough. Not that the women like Dianne Feinstein and Hillary Clinton, aren't qualified; certainly they are, but the pool needs to be expanded, there need to be more of them. I think that many women in this country certainly would want a woman president, but we want a woman president who's going to do a stellar job. One of the things that I think is such a gift to women about Secretary Albright is that people don't talk about the fact that she's a woman. They may say she's the first woman Secretary of State from time to time, or she uses her charm, but they don't use that as something against her so much. I think that she's done such a great job, that she's such a gift to women who say yeah, women can do this job. We can do this job, and we can do it well. If we're going to have a woman president she does need to be pretty stellar. She has to be a candidate who's going to take on the job realizing "I'll be the first woman president, people are really going to be looking at me, and the women around the world, and the men around the world. They'll be counting on me, can I do this job?" And of course she could do that job, but it's a lot of pressure. It's a lot more pressure than I think another president who was a man would face. Certainly not to be male bashing at all. I don't mean to be. Mr. Mailliard: Promoting women, not bashing men. Alyse Nelson: Yes, certainly, because men are important. We have a lot of our allies in the State Department who are men. Really a lot of great ones, so-- Maybe one more question. Mr. Maillard: Let us ask the best piece of advice question. Alyse Nelson: Well, I think I've already said it. I've already said and shown you that I'm pretty passionate about what I do. With young women my age who are making tons and tons of money, have these great titles and jobs, went to Harvard, did the whole thing, really into their career, we can realize there's a way we can help. You've got to be passionate about what you do, because you spend a lot of time at work. You've got to love what you do. If you love to make money, and you're passionate about that, I mean, Lord knows, I'm passionate about spending it. But I'm more passionate certainly about these women I meet around the world that and in working with them to improve their lives and the lives of their countries. You got to have that. I don't think you should plot your life out and say well, I've got to do this. You've got to have goals, certainly, but a lot of times goals shield you from seeing your true passion. I always go with how I feel rather then what I may think is necessarily like the smart thing to do. I was going to go to graduate school, I had a scholarship to do so, everything was saying, do that, but then I had this unpaid internship, six months, and then who knows? But I thought gosh, I would be so happy there. So, every decision you're going to make, I just think you should always weigh that. How am I going to feel once I'm there? You know, am I going to be really passionate? So that's my advice. Mr. Maillard: One of the best kept secrets in the United States is how passionate the people who are here in government are about what they do. Alyse Nelson: It definitely takes that. Mr. Maillard: You've just got to wonder why it doesn't transfer out to the public. I mean I've seen it all my life, and that's why I bring these kids here, so they can see it. Alyse Nelson: Well this is an incredible program. You guys are so impressive. I've watched you do all these different interviews and research, and your questions, and I see how excited you get. I've got to say that in my U.S. government class when I was a senior, I kind of ditched it a lot. And I'll tell you why, it is because it just did not get me excited, you know? The things that I was excited about, I did three hundred percent. But if it wasn't exciting and I didn't really feel like I was learning, or gaining new access, then why would I want to. Now here I am, in the middle of it. This is a great program, I'm sure you all realize that, but truly. Who knows what I would be doing if I had the experience you guys do. Do the internships, work for free if you can. If you've got to work at night, do whatever you can, but get the experience that you want. Obviously you've got to worry about paying bills, but do the internships at the places where you would want the job? Don't be afraid you can't do it. Remember, I couldn't work a fax machine, for like three months. Oh, and I typed with one hand because I never took typing. But you know, you just need to be passionate.