Panelists
Carrie F., Great Lakes Regional Recruiter, CIA
Susan Falatko, Diplomat in Residence, Midwest, Department of State
A member of the Senior Foreign Service, Susan Falatko is a career Foreign Service Officer with twenty-four years of experience with the U.S. Department of State. She is currently the Diplomat in Residence based at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where she is responsible for recruiting talented individuals from diverse backgrounds across Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota for U.S. Department of State career and student program opportunities.
Prior to her current assignment, Ms. Falatko was Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, serving as Chargé d’Affaires for over a year. She served as the Director of the Office of South Central European Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 2017 to 2019, focusing on the Western Balkans. Prior to that, she was DCM at the U.S. Embassy to Mauritius and Seychelles from 2013 to 2016.
An Economic Officer in the Foreign Service since 1999, she has also served in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2006-2009); Havana, Cuba (2001-2003); and Bamako, Mali (1999-2001). From 2003 to 2005, she worked on economic, counter-terrorism, and Western Balkans issues on the OSCE desk in the European Bureau’s Office for Regional Political-Military Affairs. Ms. Falatko has also been posted to Kigali, Rwanda, as the Public Affairs Officer and to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva as the U.S. liaison to the UN Specialized Agencies.
Marie Koko, Director of Career and Employer Services, La Follette School of Public Affairs, UW-Madison
A member of the Senior Foreign Service, Susan Falatko is a career Foreign Service Officer with twenty-four years of experience with the U.S. Department of State. She is currently the Diplomat in Residence based at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where she is responsible for recruiting talented individuals from diverse backgrounds across Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota for U.S. Department of State career and student program opportunities.
Prior to her current assignment, Ms. Falatko was Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, serving as Chargé d’Affaires for over a year. She served as the Director of the Office of South Central European Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 2017 to 2019, focusing on the Western Balkans. Prior to that, she was DCM at the U.S. Embassy to Mauritius and Seychelles from 2013 to 2016.
An Economic Officer in the Foreign Service since 1999, she has also served in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2006-2009); Havana, Cuba (2001-2003); and Bamako, Mali (1999-2001). From 2003 to 2005, she worked on economic, counter-terrorism, and Western Balkans issues on the OSCE desk in the European Bureau’s Office for Regional Political-Military Affairs. Ms. Falatko has also been posted to Kigali, Rwanda, as the Public Affairs Officer and to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva as the U.S. liaison to the UN Specialized Agencies.
Jenny W., Language Outreach Lead at the National Security Agency (NSA)
Ms. Jenny W. is the Senior Language Authority (SLA) Outreach and Communications Lead at the National Security Agency (NSA). Jenny engages with all levels of education through administering the Higher Education Language Focus Area Academic Liaison program, as well as the K-12 Language Education Advancement Program (LEAP). Her portfolio also includes collaborating with the Intelligence Community (IC) to increase awareness of foreign language positions in the IC.
Jenny started her career at NSA in 2004 in the Language Enhancement Program where she spent 3 years learning Mandarin Chinese. After program completion, she worked as a Chinese language analyst for several years before pivoting to language support roles. Jenny’s previous roles include SLA Outreach Assistant, Language Staffing Lead in External Hiring and Recruitment, and Associate Director for the new-hire Language Analysis Development Program. Jenny was also actively involved in the management of NSA’s Summer Language Program college internship for 10 years and helped shape new language-focused high school and college student programs.
Jenny graduated Cum Lade from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a double major in International Studies and Spanish, minor in Economics, and certificate in Latin American Studies. She also studied abroad for a semester in San Jose, Costa Rica and a semester in Valladolid, Spain.
Jenny lives in Maryland with her husband, four children, and dog. When not at work, you will find her coaching her children’s sports teams – softball, baseball, and basketball. She is also a shareholder of the Green Bay Packers and misses Wisconsin cheese curds.
