6th Annual Vandenberg Lecture

The Ford School is pleased to present U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink for the 6th annual Arthur Vandenberg Lecture.

Ambassador Brink will give brief remarks on the situation in Ukraine as it enters its third year of war with Russia, followed by a conversation with Weiser Diplomacy Center Director Susan D. Page.

Ambassador Brink has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the Department of State, with responsibility for issues related to Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the protracted conflicts in Europe. She also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and in Tbilisi, Georgia.

From the speaker's bio

Ambassador Brink was nominated by President Biden to be U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine on April 25, 2022, confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on May 18, 2022, and arrived in Kyiv on May 29, 2022. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ambassador Brink served as U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic from August 15, 2019, until her confirmation as Ambassador to Ukraine.

She previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the Department of State, with responsibility for issues related to Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the protracted conflicts in Europe. She also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and in Tbilisi, Georgia.

During her twenty-five years in the Foreign Service, Ambassador Brink has spent most of her career advancing U.S. policy in Europe and Eurasia. She was the Director for the Aegean and the South Caucasus at the National Security Council and also served in the State Department as the Deputy Director for Southern European Affairs, Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, and Cyprus Desk Officer. She began her career in Belgrade, Serbia.

Originally from Michigan, Ambassador Brink joined the State Department in 1996. She holds Master’s degrees in International Relations and Political Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Kenyon College. Ambassador Brink speaks Russian and has studied Georgian, Serbian, and French. She is married with two children.

About the Vandenberg Lecture

The Meijer Family established the Vandenberg Fund in 2017 to honor U.S. Senator Arthur Vandenberg, who served the State of Michigan in the U.S. Senate from 1928-1951. Senator Vandenberg forged bipartisan support for our country's most significant and enduring foreign policies of the twentieth century, including the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO and the creation of the United Nations. The Vandenberg Lecture Fund has since featured some of the world's leaders in foreign policy including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ambassador Samantha Power, among others. 

Faculty Expert

Susan D. Page

Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Professor from Practice at the University of Michigan's Law School. Director; Weiser Diplomacy Center

Page applies her vast foreign policy experience to the Weiser Diplomacy Center. She has served the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations, and non-governmental organizations in senior roles for decades, across East, Central, and Southern Africa, and in Haiti and Nepal. Page was the first U.S. ambassador to the Republic of South Sudan and served as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations in Haiti.

• Weiser Diplomacy Center
• Vandenberg Lecture
• Ambassador Brink
• WDC
• Bridget Brink
• Ambassador Bridget Brink
• Diplomacy and foreign affairs
• International policy and diplomacy
• Security
• Ukraine
• War in Ukraine