The United States Diplomacy Center (USDC) is a future museum and education center at the U.S. Department of State, dedicated to showcasing the history, practices, and challenges of U.S. diplomacy. The museum will be located at the 21st Street entrance of the Harry S Truman building in Washington, D.C., where the Department of State is headquartered. The State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs is in charge of the museum’s development, exhibits, artifact collection, education programs, and outreach. Kathy A. Johnson is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister Counselor Ms. Johnson serves as the Director of the Department’s United States Diplomacy Center, the first museum and education center in the United States devoted to telling the story of American diplomacy. Appointed to the USDC by the Assistant Secretary for Administration, Ms. Johnson’s most recent assignment was in Canberra, Australia. Other
assignments include Consular Officer in Monterrey, Mexico; Two tours in Europe (Warsaw Poland and Vienna, Austria); a Corporate Fellowship with the Exxon Chad Pipeline Project(Houston , TX); and Deputy Executive Directorships of the Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and the Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Scientific Affairs. Her distinguished career includes many awards and honors, including a 2010 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the 2010 Secretary of Defense Joint Meritorious Unit Award, and a Meritorious Honor Award with cash- U. S. Embassy Damascus, Syria. Ms. Johnson received her B. A. and her degree in History from the Aurora College in Aurora, IL and earned her Master’s in Business Administration, Executive MBA at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX in 2003. She is a graduate of the Air War College,Maxwell Air Force Base, AL, with a master’s degree in National Security Strategy, class of 2007.

Interfaith Works, founded in 1972, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency and a non-sectarian interfaith coalition of more than 165 affiliated congregations of diverse faiths, working together to meet the needs of the poor and homeless in Montgomery County, Md.
Their trained, professional staff members work with individuals and families in crisis to empower them with the tools and skills they need to lift themselves from poverty.
Shane Rock became CEO of Interfaith Works in June 2014 following an extensive career in the nonprofit, social service and advocacy worlds. After graduating from law school, he became executive director of Good Neighbor Mission, a homeless shelter in rural Tennessee helping people living in extreme poverty. In the two decades that have followed, Shane’s career has encompassed a range of social justice concerns while remaining focused on helping people who lack economic opportunity. Most recently, Shane was director of operations for senior services for the Jewish Social Services Agency in Rockville. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and philosophy from Oberlin College and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School. Before moving to Montgomery County in 2012, Shane was a member of the Rotary Club of Ballard in Seattle, Washington.

Fred was born in 1932 in the City of Edinburgh, Scotland. Educated at Edinburgh Academy and Clifton Hall Prep Schools and later at Fettes College, he went on study at Nottingham University
where he obtained a BSC. in Agriculture. After graduating he obtained his commission in the Royal Artillery. Immigrating to Canada, Fred joined NW Nitro Chemicals and was transferred to the USA, but not before meeting his future wife, Joyce Briercliffe, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Soon after he joined Imperial Oil in Toronto, he was quickly moved back to join the USA Company in New York. Moving from there to Houston (Exxon), Fred next moved to Malaysia, then back to New York then…..you get the message….it was a life of constant moving, but they were nevertheless able to raise three wonderful children despite all the turmoil. Retiring in 1990 and settling in Victoria, BC, they finally moved to the D.C. area. Never the one to be idle, Fred soon dug out an old trunk full of artifacts from Egypt, which Joyce’s grandfather had brought with him to Canada. Intrigued to learn more about Egypt and remembering some of his Latin and Greek from his schooldays, he was soon deep in research about those times. With almost nothing in written history about Cleopatra, guess on whom he decided to focus his efforts. Eight years of research later, the first of his books was published and it was like no other written about this famous Queen. The second is on its way and is also filled with many new discoveries and insights.