Ambassador Greg Engle: A Simple Prayer

Techawat with Benjamin Morse

Today’s guest is Ambassador Gregory W. Engle (Ret.). Greg and I first met in Ethiopia in 2012 when he became the Peace Corps Country Director while I was a volunteer. Having served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea (1980-1981), his assignment as a Peace Corps country director brought his international career full circle in many ways.

In this episode we dive deep into Greg’s life and career as a Foreign Service Officer, which spans decades and is full of breath-taking stories of meetings with Presidents and even a dinner with Nelson Mandela. Greg provides guru-level advice for those interested in joining the Foreign Service or the Peace Corps, so be sure to pull out your notebooks for that section. He speaks with a unique conviction that will have you sitting on the edge of your chair and offers layers of sage-like wisdom that will surely help you chart your path into travel and exploration.

As I mentioned, Greg is a retired Foreign Service Officer whose diplomatic career included assignments in Pakistan, Germany, Ethiopia, Cyprus, Malawi, South Africa, Iraq, Washington and Togo, where he was the U.S. ambassador. He was the recipient of the U.S. Department of State's prestigious Leamon R. Hunt Award for Administrative Excellence in 1990, as well as a Presidential rank award in 2016 for his service in Iraq.

Greg spent his last two years in the Foreign Service as Diplomat-in-Residence at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Following his retirement from the U.S. Department of State in 2008, he continued as adjunct faculty of the LBJ School (2008-2018).

For the first time on this show, Greg treats us to a live musical performance in the middle of our conversation, playing “A Simple Prayer” from his 2010 debut album “Take it Personally”. He also won first prize in the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival songwriting competition in Okemah, Oklahoma in 2011. He has performed and conducted songwriting workshops in Swaziland (2012), Lesotho (2015), Mauritania (2016), Cote d’Ivoire (2018), Djibouti (2019) and Eritrea (2019) under the U.S. Department of State’s Arts Envoy Program. Greg is also the co-author of a book entitled Managing Overseas Operations: Kiss Your Latte Goodbye (Vargas Publishing, 2012), which he wrote with Ambassador Tibor Nagy.

Greg has been an ardent supporter and mentor of mine over the years and I’m humbled and honored to help share his words with you. This episode is truly a treat, so grab your pen and paper, your folk-festival shoes, and your imagination as you dive into this one!

To connect with Greg:

• Greg Engle

Watch “A Simple Prayer” videos:

• Friends of Korea: A Simple Prayer
• Glimmer of Hope (Ethiopia): A Simple Prayer
• Official Video: A Simple Prayer

Support the Show:

• Paypal: paypal.me/BenjaminMorse
• Instagram: @techawat_with_benjamin_morse, @benjamin_august_blair

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