State Department Special Envoy and Coordinator of the Global Engagement Center Lea Gabrielle will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Civil Affairs Symposium on “Integrating Civils Affairs” in Tampa, FL, 18-19 October. Recently appointed, she is a former Human Intelligence Operations Officer, Defense Foreign Liaison Officer, U.S. Navy Program Director, Navy F/A-18C Fighter Pilot, and Fox news correspondent and anchor. She is also a U.S. Naval Academy graduate with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Special Envoy Gabrielle will discuss the new Global Engagement Center and “Civil Affairs and America’s Global Influence through Local Engagement.” The mission of the Center is to “direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate efforts of the Federal Government to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and foreign non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States and its allies and partner nations.”
Given the predominance of “winning the battle of the narrative” at all levels, CA’s role as the military's primary capability to engage and influence populations for well over a century has gained new importance as an instrument of “expeditionary diplomacy,” as has CA’s ability to work by, with, and through other military, civilian, and interorganizational partners to help win in the global competition for influence.
Ms. Gabrielle is exceptionally well qualified to provide Executive insights and guidance to the development of civil affairs in this regard. Prior to becoming an intelligence operations officer, she was a Defense Foreign Liaison Officer for the DIA Office of International Engagements. In this foreign diplomacy role, she was a DoD principal contact with foreign Defense Attachés, organizing international military cooperation and information-sharing operations between these attachés and U.S. Government leaders.
To find out more about the Symposium and register, go to Upcoming Events on the Association website.