But she said to me, “I am a Sudanese refugee. And I kind of looked at her and thought maybe it’s someone who works at the State Department – maybe somebody I met some time ago speaking to universities maybe she has seen me at a congressional hearing and just thought this was an opportunity to say hi to Linda, because she couldn’t remember my double barrel name.

And when this person said that to me, I didn’t know who she was. But usually, people who remember me, call me Linda. People in my office refer to me as LTG because they don’t want to call me Linda. Very few people call me Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield – presidents and students all call me Linda. Some time ago, I was walking on the streets of Arlington, Virginia – where I was living before I moved to New York – and someone stopped me on the sidewalk and she said, “Are you Linda?” And everybody around the world, they all know me as Linda. As we were walking around Alumni Park and looked at the Madison motto about service, it really makes sense for me to spend some time with you on that and then you can ask me questions about all these other things that are happening around the world.

About how we’re combating global food insecurity and what we’re doing to take on the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges that we are facing every single day.īut actually, what I’m going to do with you today, I want to take a moment to talk to you about the importance of public service. I want to talk to you about Russia’s war in Ukraine. Why our engagement there is so important – particularly right now as we’re dealing with so many issues around the world. I want to talk about how the United Nations works. I want to talk about what’s happening around the world. And I really want to thank Professor Ebbinghaus for hosting our moderated discussion. And I particularly want to thank the Wisconsin Alumni Association for putting together this amazing event for me to have the opportunity to meet with students I cannot imagine ever coming on this campus without taking time to meet with students who are sitting in the same chairs that I sat in – I don’t want to tell you how long ago – but it was a long time ago. So many of you are here on a Friday afternoon. Let me thank all of you for joining us face-to-face.

Bascom hall uw madison