The Lumsden Leadership Summit: A Talk On International Relations

We are proud to announce the sixth edition of our annual event, The Lumsden Leadership Summit, a unique platform that encourages and inspires the student body and wider community by exposing them to successful women from across all business and society sectors.
Today we invite you to join our talk on International Relations, where we have invited interesting, successful and prominent women from the arena of international politics.

Our speakers for this conference are:

Anna Walters:
Anna Walters has worked on international affairs for over 20 years, both for the UK and the United Nations. She has broad thematic experience, including in governance and open societies, anti-corruption, conflict mitigation, and justice and security. Her geographic experience spans Asia, Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Now Deputy Director for Counter-Terrorism, Sub Saharan Africa, Anna is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and works for the FCDO.

Dr. Elisabeth Kendall
Dr. Elisabeth Kendall is Senior Research Fellow in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Pembroke College, Oxford University. Her current work examines how militant jihad movements exploit traditional Arab culture(s) and local dynamics. Previously, she held positions at the Universities of Edinburgh and Harvard and served as Director of a UK government-sponsored Center focused on building Arabic expertise.
In addition to lecturing at universities and think tanks around the world, she has been invited to present her research at numerous state institutions, including the House of Commons, House of Lords, UK Foreign Office, GCHQ, MOD, SAS, French Special Forces, NATO, CENTCOM, US State Department, Pentagon, United Nations, EU Council, EU Ambassadors, German Foreign Ministry, Finnish Foreign Ministry and Parliament, and various intelligence and security audiences in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and America. She is regularly featured in the international television, radio, and print media, including BBC, Al Jazeera, France 24, CNN, and various national broadcasters.
For the past seven years, she has acted as an international advisor (pro-bono) to a cross-tribal group in east Yemen that promotes community cohesion as a counterweight to al-Qa'ida & ISIS. She is also Chairman of a grass-roots NGO in Yemen's Mahra governorate. She is the author or (co-)editor of several books, including ReClaiming Islamic Tradition (2016), Twenty-First Century Jihad (2015), and Literature, Journalism and the Avant-Garde: Intersection in Egypt (2006). She conceived of and edits the "Essential Middle Eastern Vocabularies" series, which includes the following titles, which she also authored: Diplomacy Arabic, Intelligence Arabic, and Media Arabic. She is currently working on a new book called Rock Stars of Jihad. She studied Arabic initially as an undergraduate at Oxford University, receiving the top First Class degree in 30 years.

Ellen Wong
Ellen Wong is the Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, a role she has held since October 2018. As Head of the Consulate, Ellen is responsible for all American Citizen Services in Scotland, and promoting the U.S.-Scotland relationship.
Ellen previously served as the Deputy Political and Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and formerly as the Senior Country Officer for Germany.
From 2010 to 2015, Ellen served in Beijing, China and as Special Assistant for East Asia and the Pacific in the Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment. Earlier Department of State assignments included Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Ellen has a BA in Politics and German from Princeton University, and an MA from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

To facilitate the conference, we have St Andrews's own Dr. Roxani Krystalli, professor at the St Andrews School of International Relations. Her research and teaching explore various dimensions of feminist peace and conflict studies and the politics of nature and place. She is particularly interested in questions of narrative and storytelling in international politics. Her writing has appeared in the International Feminist Journal of Politics, the European Journal of International Relations, the Oxford Handbook on Gender and Violence, the Companion to Peace and Conflict Fieldwork, among others, and several media outlets and blogs. Her research on the politics and hierarchies of victimhood in Colombia was awarded the Peter Ackerman prize for best Ph.D. dissertation in 2020. Her blog, Stories of Conflict and Love, won the Best Individual Blog award at the International Studies Association in 2019. Roxani has spent a decade working as a practitioner in the humanitarian field, focusing on the intersection of gender, justice, and violence, and she regularly advises international organizations on these issues. Born and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece, she now lives in Dunblane, Scotland.

These women will share their work, achievements, and insights as they represent all that we are seeking to promote and inspire in the next generation of leaders.

We are looking forward to seeing you at our event.
Kind regards,
The Lumsden Leadership Summit

The Lumsden club aims to support women's and children's charities and promote the arts both locally and abroad. The Club predominantly works alongside Fife Women's Aid, supporting mothers and children who have been domestic abuse victims.