Last month we convened female leaders in our Graduate Fellowship Network for our second annual Women’s Leadership in National Security, Defense and Public Service event. In this blog post, we highlight some key moments from the evening as well as reflections shared by our speakers and participants underscoring the impact of this special gathering.

As part of our Graduate Fellowship Program, the Foundation established the Alumni of the Year Award in 2022. The Award recognizes an alum who has demonstrated a commitment to public service, benefited the public good, and personifies the leadership qualities that the Rumsfelds hoped to encourage through the Fellowship's efforts. 

Earlier this summer the Foundation co-hosted the 2025 CAMCA Regional Forum in Mongolia. In this blog post we’re pleased to share some of the firsthand perspectives from journalists, speakers, sponsors and more that joined us for this year’s CAMCA convening in Ulaanbaatar. 

We are pleased to share this follow up to our initial “CAMCA Going Global” post with an exciting development in the continuation of the CAMCA Network’s engagement with the UAE business community. Reflecting on a roundtable session led by network members at Investopia 2025 in Abu Dhabi this February, Tamar Kekenadze, Managing Director of the CAMCA Regional Forum, has authored a special piece for us outlining the unique investment opportunities within the CAMCA region.

For this post in our Service Series, we were pleased to interview Sheriff Almakki, one of our 2023 Graduate Fellows, who recently joined the U.S. State Department as a newly minted Foreign Affairs Officer. We asked Sheriff to reflect on his journey to public service, including his graduate education at the University of Michigan, his longtime interest in refugee affairs, and the impact of his experience within our Graduate Fellowship Network on his professional development. 

This September, a delegation of women representing the CAMCA Network visited The United Arab Emirates to advance the network’s connections with the UAE business community and to attend the 2024 WE EMPOWER Summit organized by the U.S. Embassy in the UAE.  The delegation was initiated and organized by longtime CAMCA Network member, Nazira Beishenalieva, a current resident of Dubai, and a native of the Kyrgyz Republic.