A Conversation With Author, Diplomat, Executive and Trailblazer, Lauri Fitz-Pegado

Cultural and commercial diplomacy are the hallmarks of Lauri Fitz-Pegado’s career. She has been a civil servant at the Voice of America and the U.S. Information Agency, and a Foreign Service Officer in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Appointed by President Clinton, she was confirmed by the Senate to serve as Assistant Secretary and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service at the Department of Commerce led by Secretary Ronald H. Brown. In the private sector she advised countries, corporations, individuals and non-profits as a senior executive at Hill and Knowlton and Gray and Company, and as a partner at The Livingston Group. Lauri also was an executive at Iridium, the global mobile satellite communications company.  With a history of ballet training and performing with the Capitol Ballet, Vassar Dance Theatre and Ballet Santo Domingo, she now has returned to her passions by teaching ballet and mentoring. She applies her communications and public relations skills to promoting artists, and her business and leadership experience to advising dance institutions sharing her commitment to social change, empowerment, and inclusion.  Lauri received her B.A. from Vassar College, M.A from the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and speaks Spanish and Portuguese. She is grateful for the rich contributions her community of family and friends has made to her life story.  For more information, visit https://inthedash.live/.