Goli Ameri, assistant US Secretary of State and special envoy for education quietly flew in last week here in Manila. She later proceeded to Davao for a quick visit to see for herself how the various American-supported educational assistance programs have helped the disadvantaged sectors as the intended beneficiaries. She came here along with Thomas A. Farrell, deputy assistant secretary for academic programs of the US State Department.
While here on official mission, Ameri signed a memorandum of agreement that seeks to increase students and faculty exchanges between the Philippines and the US and to enhance the RP-US cooperation on academic and professional fields. Included in this agreement was a provision of additional funding assistance for the Fulbright scholarship program to broaden its base and bring it down to “grassroots”. This will hopefully extend this scholarship program to students outside the “elitist” coverage that has limited it to UP and exclusive universities like Ateneo and De La Salle.
The Fulbright Program in the Philippines, we were told, is the world’s longest-running program. It celebrated its 60th anniversary on April 18 and it was an occasion that brought together some of the 2,400 Filipino Fulbright grantees who have benefited from the graduate scholarships at leading American universities these past six decades. Many of these alumni have gone on to become officials in our government and as leaders in business, education, science, and culture and the arts in our country.
US Ambassador Kristie Kenney hosted a breakfast meeting for Ameri who wanted to touch base with top Filipino women executives in American-owned companies here, and several Fulbright alumni last week at the US Embassy in Manila. Since it was an all-women gathering, Kenney ribbed Farrell who happens to be her long-time friend and colleague at the State Department, that there was a “token gentleman” present with us at the long table. Ambassador Kenney presided the free-wheeling discussion for over an hour.
Ameri cheerfully related her experience during a public interaction at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila in Intramuros that was organized by its very young and intelligent university president, lawyer Adel Tamano in coordination with the US Embassy officials in Manila. Ameri noted she was deluged with so many questions by highly enthusiastic but obviously critically thinking PLM students whom she apparently inspired to speak out their minds. I was not surprised to hear it especially now that PLM is headed by Tamano, a Harvard Law graduate whose other career is being the official spokesman of the United Opposition.
In self-deprecating joke, Ameri suspected that the students perhaps wondered: “Look at this Secretary, she does not even know the answers!” But Kenney assuaged her it wasn’t so because Farrel, her deputy who was there at the forum, sufficiently answered all those questions thrown her way. “So I’m more than a token,” Farrell shot back at Kenney. Ameri wittily riposted, “The number one rule of leadership is to get the right team!”
Without any further equivocation, Ameri impressed upon us that she came here to promote the collaboration of private sector and government to “co-invest” in education. She especially sounded the call to American-owned multinational companies operating in the Philippines to undertake this kind of “co-investment” in education through their corporate social responsibility programs and private foundations.
Ameri noted that her own bureau at the State Department is the third biggest source of education-related foundation next to Bill Gates Foundation and the Ford Foundation. “But our own resources cannot go far enough. So we need all the support. Clearly, this is a volunteer corps for new CSR for American companies,” Ameri exhorted.
Kenney echoed her appeals, citing that these American companies ought to give some kind of payback through the years of doing good business in our country. “The Philippines is economically prosperous. Greater trading with the Philippines means more purchases from the US and create jobs for Americans, too,” she pointed out.
Ameri is a young woman leader herself. She is an Iranian-American politician, diplomat, and businesswoman from the state of Oregon. She was founder and president of eTinium, Inc., a telecommunications consulting firm in Portland, Oregon. She is a card-bearing member of the Republican Party of US President George W.Bush. She ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2004 and was a former US delegate to the United Nations.
Ameri was born in Tehran, Iran. She first came to the US in 1974 as a young 17-year old lass who went there to study at Stanford University. She earned her degree in Communications and French Literature and later pursued her M.A. in Communications. She also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. It was in November 2007 when President Bush appointed Ameri to succeed Dina Habib Powell as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. It is part of the duties of Ameri to travel to different regions of the globe to promote cross-cultural understanding of the US among other nations.
Ameri was named as one of the “100 Most Powerful Women in the Northwest” by The NW Women’s Journal in October 2007. She was cited for her UN service and her position on the Advisory Board of the National Education for Women’s Leadership program at the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. She presided at one time over the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that is largely responsible for the American government’s public diplomacy efforts abroad.
In our small chat, I found out we both closely followed the defunct TV drama series Commander-in-Chief in which Hollywood actress Geena Davis was featured as the first American woman President. Unfortunately, after eight episodes, it went off the air supposedly due to low viewer audience. It was suspiciously cut off before the US presidential primaries started when former First Lady and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton tried but failed to become the presidential bet of the US Democrat Party. Coincidentally, we strayed into this bit of trivial talks when I noticed a strong facial resemblance of Ameri to Geena Davis.
