Episode 9: Introducing Ms. Tonija Hope Navas

This week we are joined by my Profile of the Week, Ms. Tonija Hope Navas, Director of the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University.  Tonija brings over 20 years of professional and lived experiences in international exchange, international education, and programs management. In Episode 9, her professional and life experiences shine bright throughout our discussion about her career journey, which included living and working in Latin America and time working in the restaurant business for the "chef saving the world" and Founder of World Central Kitchen, Mr. Jose Andres. First, Tonija takes us to St. Paul Minnesota where she attended undergraduate school at Macalester College, she then takes us to South Africa and discusses what it was like helping a professor bridge the cultural divides in the classroom during a challenging time in South African history just after the end of the Apartheid Era. Tonija provides us with insight into her thinking about attending George Washington University and her decision to get a master's degree in Tourism Administration with a focus on International Education. The discussion turns to the importance of foreign language, the importance of increasing the numbers of African-Americans who study abroad, and she also provides the listeners with an excellent assessment of the issues and challenges facing the Afro-descendant populations in Latin America. As the Director of the Ralph Bunche International Affairs Center, she administers four programs that are designed to deal directly with the underrepresentation of people of color in the foreign service and development space.  She speaks about those programs and the goals and the future of all four of them: 1) Charles B. Rangel; 2) Thomas R. Pickering; 3) Donald M. Payne Fellowship; and, 4) APHIS Foreign Service Agriculture Fellowship Program. Please listen to Episode 9 of the Point and the Pushback and hear another fascinating professional and life story of one of our guests.