Featured Mentors

Ajani Husbands, SIS/MA '07 - Two-time mentor

Ajani Husbands is a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. He currently is serving as a Consular Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As such, he adjudicates non-immigrant and immigrant visas for Haitians wishing to visit or live in the United States, as well as attends to consular needs for American citizens living in Haiti. In the coming months, he will rotate into the embassy’s Economic section, managing the commercial portfolio (U.S. businesses seeking to invest in Haiti) as well as reporting on reconstruction efforts.

He previously served in Asmara, Eritrea as the embassy’s sole Political/Economic officer. Following his tour in Haiti, he will serve one year in Islamabad, Pakistan working on the Fulbright and other exchange programs. From there, he will serve a year in Juba, South Sudan, the world’s newest country, as the embassy’s Public Affairs Officer. He will be responsible for crafting the embassy’s diplomatic outreach strategy (cultural, media, and otherwise) in the nascent country.

In his spare time, Husbands also enjoys volunteering to teach public speaking, blogging, and reading comic books. He also continues work on The Mamelodi Project, a small NGO dedicated to promoting a positive vision of Africa through education and the arts.

Husbands received his M.A. in International Development from American University and his B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University.

My time at AU...

• Graduated in 2007
• Took two classes at Howard University as part of the Consortium (loved it)
• Saw Dick Gregory speak on campus

Other Random Facts...

After graduating AU I had the chance to either start working with the State Dept right away or find some type of internship during the summer. I chose neither. I took out several thousand in student loans and went to South Africa to film a documentary. Taking time to experience the world on my own terms is the most valuable lesson I learned and put all my AU classes into perspective.

Why Am I Mentoring...

The most influential people in my life have always been just a few years older than me, and full of iron determination in the face of the impossible. That is what I admire most. I hope that I can show others that the impossible is not only possible, but needed.

Beth Ingalls, SIS/MA '00 - Three-time mentor

Elizabeth Ingalls joined the U.S. Department of State as a civil servant in 2000. In March of this year, she rejoined the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism in the Office the Secretary (S/CT) and was assigned the Yemen portfolio. Ingalls returned to S/CT after a year in Islamabad, Pakistan where she covered counterterrorism issues for the Embassy’s Political Section. From 2007-2010, she worked for S/CT and was responsible for the seven Gulf States and Iraq. She also served as back-up for the rest of the Middle East. Prior to her time in S/CT, Ingalls was a program manager for the Iraq police training program for the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) from 2004-2007. Ingalls served in the Civilian Observer Unit (COU) with Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Sinai, Egypt for 18 months in 2003-2004. Ingalls started her career in INL’s Latin American Programs office focusing on counter drug and anti-crime programs in Central America from 2000-2003.

Ingalls holds a Masters degree in International Affairs from American University in Washington, DC and is a native of New Hampshire.

My time at AU...

was spent studying. I was at AU for grad school so I didn't have the social life of undergrads.

Other Random Facts...

In addition to my passion for foreign affairs, I love mountain biking and downhill skiing.

Why I am mentoring...

I remember what it was like when I was a senior in college and was trying figure out what to do next. It would have been nice to have a professional in the area of foreign policy to talk to who could tell me about all the career possibilities.

Mark Overmann, SIS/MA '05 - Three-time mentor

Mark Overmann has served as the Assistant Director and Senior Policy Specialist at the Alliance since February 2009. Prior to joining the Alliance, Overmann was the Director of College Communications at Georgetown University, where he worked closely with the university's outreach and exchange programs to China. He also previously worked as the Program Associate for Communications at the National Council for International Visitors.

Overmann made his first substantive trip abroad during college to study in Anger, France. Following his graduation with a B.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame, he taught English and studied Chinese in Northeast China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Region. He subsequently earned his M.A. in International communication from American University’s School of International Service. Overmann is coauthor with Sherry Mueller of Working World: Careers in International Education, Exchange, and Development (Georgetown University Press, 2008). He speaks French and Chinese, and is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio.

My time at AU...

• I graduated in 2005 with an MA in International Communication.
• I was the “social coordinator” for the International Communication Student Forum, which largely involved planning happy hours.
• I once did a presentation during a research methods class that included as a prop what my professor though was green tea and what I thought was non-alcoholic beer but which I later discovered from my co-presenter was actual beer.
• To my eternal shame, I didn’t attend my first AU men’s basketball game until after I graduated, when the team made the NCAA tournament for the first time. But better to be a fair weather fan than not a fan at all, I say.

Other random facts...

• A farmer in northeastern China, about 30 miles from the North Korean border, snuck up on the tent I had pitched on his property and tried to tie me up with a rope. He was suspicious not because I was trespassing on his land but because he suspected I might be a North Korean refugee.
• I have played open mics all around DC as part of the acoustic guitar-saxophone duo known as Tomax.
• I was a Mock Trial state champion in high school.

Why I am mentoring...

Thinking back to when I was in college, and just after I graduated, I know I would have greatly benefited from the counsel and company of someone who’d been there before—someone who had once felt as lost as I did yet made it through. Someone who once, like me, knew they wanted to “do something international” but had no idea how that might translate into a career. Someone to ask silly questions of, to bounce ideas off of, and to look to for encouragement. I’m mentoring because I hope I can give that kind of counsel and encouragement to an AU student who needs it.