On May 15, 2015, MSFS will welcome the following distinguished speakers to campus to speak to the graduating class at the Tropaia Awards Ceremony.
Kate Snow, MSFS ’93
Kate Snow is a national correspondent for NBC News, contributing stories to “Nightly News,” the “TODAY” show and “Dateline.” In this role, she also serves as a fill-in anchor for Nightly News” and the “TODAY” show. Prior to being named national correspondent, Snow served as correspondent for “Rock Center with Brian Williams”.
Over her career, Snow has covered politics, four presidential elections, the White House and Congress. She continues to cover breaking news stories — from the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., to the mall attack in Kenya and the oil spill in the Gulf.
An Emmy-winning journalist, Snow has traveled extensively and told stories that created change. Her Rock Center piece on teenage foreign exchange students being abused by host parents led to new policies at the State Department. Snow’s investigative reports on texting while driving and soccer concussions among young female soccer players sparked national conversations. She was the first reporter to sit down with one of the victims in the Jerry Sandusky scandal and tell his story, as well as the first to speak with kidnap victim Hannah Anderson.
Snow has interviewed a wide range of newsmakers — from President Obama to Bono. She pointedly questioned President Bill Clinton in his first interview after his wife lost the 2008 nomination. But she can just as easily sing a tune with Rick Springfield.
Prior to joining NBC News as a “Dateline” correspondent in 2010, Snow was the anchor of the weekend edition of Good Morning America, a program she anchored from its inception. Previously, she was a White House correspondent for ABC News and a Congressional Correspondent for CNN.
Snow is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Snow is heavily involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and until recently sat on the charity’s national board.
Snow and her husband have two children.
Ambassador Donald McHenry
Donald F. McHenry served as Ambassador and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations from September 1979 until January 20, 1981.
As chief United States representative to the United Nations, he also served as a member of President Carter’s Cabinet. At the time of his appointment, Ambassador McHenry was Ambassador and U.S. Deputy Representative to the UN Security Council, a position to which he was appointed in March 1977.
Ambassador McHenry has studied, taught and worked primarily in the fields of foreign policy and international law and organizations. He joined the U.S. Department of State in 1963 and served eight years in various positions related to U.S. foreign policy. In 1966 he received the Department’s Superior Honor Award. In 1971, while on leave from the Department, he was a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. and an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, New York. In 1973, after leaving the State Department, he joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. as a project director in Humanitarian Policy Studies. In 1976 he served as a member of President Carter’s transition staff at the State Department before joining the U.S. Mission to the UN.
During his career, Ambassador McHenry represented the United States in a number of international fora and as the U.S. negotiator on the question on Namibia. He served as Presidential Envoy to Nigeria; a member of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s eminent persons mission to Algeria; and, leader of a consulting mission on Senegal elections.
Ambassador McHenry has taught at Southern Illinois, Howard, American and Georgetown Universities. He is the author of Micronesia: Trust Betrayed (Carnegie Endowment, 1975) and numerous other articles published in professional journals and newspapers.
Ambassador McHenry has recently retired as a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.
Denis McDonough, MSFS ’96
Denis McDonough is currently serving as the President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff, a position he assumed in February 2013. Prior to assuming this role, he served as the Deputy National Security Advisor from October 2010 to January 2013. He also served as the Chief of Staff of the National Security Staff and as the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications.
Prior to arriving at the White House, McDonough served as a senior advisor on foreign policy issues on the Presidential Transition Team and on President Obama’s 2008 campaign. Prior to that, he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. McDonough has also worked in the Congress, including as Foreign Policy Advisor for Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle.
McDonough graduated from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and has a master’s from Georgetown University. A native of Stillwater, Minnesota, McDonough currently lives in Maryland with his wife Kari and three children.