Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service

Her Highness Shiekha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned of the Emirate of Qatar has been selected as the featured speaker for the 2008 commencement ceremonies of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, to be held at 6:00 pm EST on Saturday, May 17 2008. 

Her Highness is currently the chair of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development, a non-profit organization founded in 1995 by the Emir of Qatar.  In the fall of 2003, the Qatar Foundation officially inaugurated Education City, a prototypical university of the future that brings campuses of international universities on site in Qatar to share research and community-based ventures. Currently, Education City provides innovative educational and research opportunities through partnerships with many renowned educational institutions, including Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.

Her Highness also serves as president of the Supreme Council of Family Affairs, a government institution founded in 1998 with the aim of strengthening the role of family in society, and UNESCO’s Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education.  In November 2002, she was appointed vice-chair of the Supreme Education Council, a government institution that oversees Qatar's reform efforts in the K-12 education system. In 2003, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) appointed Her Highness as special envoy for basic and higher education. In 2005 she was selected as a member of the U.N. High Level Group of the Alliance of Civilizations, set up by U.N. secretary general of the UN to develop creative mechanisms for fighting terrorism. Her Highness graduated from the University of Qatar in 1986 with a degree in sociology.

This will be the 209th commencement of Georgetown University.   Previous SFS commencement speakers include Dr. Jessica Tuchman Mathews, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (2007); The Honorable Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations (2006); His Royal Highness the Prince of Asturias, Felipe de Borbón y Grecia of Spain (2005); and Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet (2003).