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Join us for a unique opportunity to hear from Colleen Bell,U.S. Ambassador to Hungary.  She will be joined byDr. Reka Szemerkenyi, Hungarian Ambassador to the U.S.Ambassador Colleen Bell was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the United States’ Ambassador to Hungary and was confirmed by the United States Senate in December 2014. Prior to her diplomatic service abroad, Ambassador Bell was a leading business executive at an award-winning production company responsible for some of the most-watched television programming in the world, reaching more than 40 million people in more than 100 countries across five continents. While a producer at Bell-Phillip Television Productions in Los Angeles, Ambassador Bell’s work frequently earned the field’s most prestigious recognition for creative content, social awareness, and public-health education. In addition to her long career in international business and the arts, Ambassador Bell is a dedicated philanthropist and an industry-leading advocate committed to tackling some of the United States’ most vexing domestic and global public policy challenges. Ambassador Bell’s public service work and her successful record of strategic and organization planning have led to the implementation of critical initiatives in natural-resource protection, child-abuse prevention, crime victim counseling and care, public-health awareness, and art accessibility  Prior to assuming her role leading Embassy Budapest, Ambassador Bell served on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, UCLA Medical Center’s Rape Treatment Center Foundation, the Children’s Institute, Inc., and the Natural Resource Defense Council’s Los Angeles and Global Leadership Councils. Ambassador Bell is a graduate of Sweet Briar College.   Dr. Réka Szemerkényi was appointed Ambassador of Hungary to the United States in 2015. Previously, from 2011 to 2014, she was Chief Advisor on Security Policy to the Prime Minister of Hungary. Working at the Prime Minister’s office she covered Trans-Atlantic issues, Central European regional relations, the Balkans, Russia, with a particular emphasis on energy security and cyber security. Between 2006 and 2011, she was Head of International Public Affairs and Chief Advisor on International Relations to the Chairman of the Board of MOL Group, the Hungarian Oil and Gas Company. In this capacity, her role was to cover European Union energy policy and security developments and the establishment of the Central European regional energy cooperation, as well as to provide professional support for executive decisions on a wide range of issues in international affairs.  Dr. Szemerkényi held various governmental posts prior to this. Between 1998 and 2002, she was State Secretary for Foreign Policy and National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Hungary. From 1991 to 1994, she was Senior Advisor to the State Secretary of the Ministry of Defense of Hungary.  She completed her Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies as a Fulbright Fellow at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC (1993-5). She earned her Doctoral Degree at Péter Pázmány Catholic University of Budapest.RSVP to:  http://tinyurl.com/zu3uudpLight refreshments will be provided.  You are also welcomed to bring your own lunch.