School of Media and Public Affairs Director Frank Sesno will moderate a roundtable with three senior Obama Administration cabinet members next week.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner will discuss the administration’s global development policies as part of the 2010 U.S. Global Leadership Coalition Washington Conference.
“I don’t know if these folks have appeared at one time in one place before, but it’s highly unusual to have the ‘big three’ secretaries gather like this,” Sesno said in an e-mail. “They’re clearly trying to signal their seriousness in this approach to development and the way the United States will engage in the world.”
The event, which will take place on Sept. 28 at 3 p.m., will also feature USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah and Millennium Challenge Corporation CEO Daniel Yohannes.
“The reason for the astounding gathering is that the administration wants to emphasize the ‘all-government’ approach to development,” Sesno said.
Only 15 tickets were available for students, according to an e-mail sent by SMPA.
Kelsey Viets, program assistant for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, said the number of student spots was expanded to 20 after the large amount of interest. The spots were filled within 25 minutes this morning.
Viets said she received 52 e-mails from students and has continued to receive messages throughout the day.
While she is not holding a formal waiting list, Viets said she will contact Sesno Monday with the number of open spots. Students interested in attending should contact Sesno to see if there are seats available.
Viets said she is managing a registration list of over 800 names.
“While we truly appreciate the overwhelming interest from the GW student community and strongly encourage students to be actively engaged in international affairs, in particular our events, we have to reserve a certain number of seats in our afternoon panel for the Administration and Capitol Hill staff, which keeps getting larger,” she said.
