Eric Salgado (CLAS ’17) entered the ranks of the U.S. Foreign Service as a Political Officer at the Department of State soon after completing his degree.  His first official assignment was at the U.S. Embassy in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where his role consisted of advancing the U.S. government’s human rights agenda in a country reckoning with civil unrest, terrorism, and humanitarian crises. From there he went to Lima, Peru, where he is a consular officer, playing a role in the safety and security of U.S. citizens at a particularly turbulent time politically in the country. Last year he played a critical role as Deputy Control Officer for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Lima to attend the Organization of American States’ General Assembly (see photo above).  His next assignment will bring him back to Washington D.C. where he will serve as Political Officer at the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States.

In a recent conversation with CLAS, Eric reflected on his time at Georgetown University and his diplomatic career. He stated that “CLAS contributed greatly to my personal and intellectual development. Graduate school was an opportunity to push the bounds of my analytical and writing skills. These are critically important in my career as a political officer since I am frequently meeting with individuals from all walks of life with the aim of understanding, as much as possible, a foreign political reality. Then I have to interpret this information and explain how it may impact our foreign policy goals. To do this, you have to be able to keep an open mind and use analytical skills to wade through and synthesize a lot of information.  CLAS also educated me as to regional trends and developments that make my next role at the U.S. Mission to the OAS a wonderful fit. I was very fortunate to take Dr. Angelo Rivero Santos' course on regionalism in Latin America and that education will prove vitally useful in my next assignment.”  

You can connect with Eric on LinkedIn here