Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine to speak in ethics series

Marie Yovanovitch Download image

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.— Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and bestselling author of the memoir “Lessons From the Edge,” will speak in the Purdue Series on Corporate Citizenship and Ethics at 7 p.m. April 20 in Stewart Center, Room 214. The talk is free and open to the public.

Yovanovitch will share her experiences from her 33-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, including her insights on the current crisis in Ukraine. She was U.S. ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Armenia prior to her time in Kyiv. She retired from foreign service work in 2020 and is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a nonresident fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.

Yovanovitch earned the Senior Foreign Service Performance Award eight times and the U.S. Department of State’s Superior Honor Award on nine occasions. She is the recipient of two Presidential Distinguished Service Awards and the Secretary’s Diplomacy in Human Rights Award. Among her other honors are the 2020 PEN/Benenson Courage Award from PEN America, the American Spirit Award for Distinguished Public Service from the Common Good, and the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government from the University of Illinois system’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

The event is part of the Purdue Series on Corporate Citizenship and Ethics, which features speakers from a variety of disciplines who investigate various aspects of business ethics and the role citizens play in corporate ethics. It is presented by the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business and the College of Education’s James F. Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship, with funding from the Blake Family Fund and Purdue Federal Credit Union.

The talk will also serve as the kickoff event for the Daniels School Alumni Conference, a three-day event of programming for alums. Yovanovitch will sign previously purchased copies of her book following her talk. A clear bag policy will be in effect for this event.

Source/Media contact: Tim Newton, director of external relations, Daniels School, 765-496-7271, tnewton@purdue.edu