July 2021 Monthly meeting

Margalit Murray, Supervisory Special Agent, Foreign Service and Diplomatic Services, US State Department will be our speaker this month.

Margalit grew up in Hilo, Hawaii and the Northern Virginia area. She is a graduate of Boston University (B.A. in Political Science and International Relations) and the George Washington University (M.A. International Law and Security). Margalit received the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to conduct independent research on how women’s roles were influenced by social and political organizations in Kuwait in 2001, arriving there the day before 9/11.

In 2004, Margalit joined the State Department and has served overseas at U.S. embassies in Beirut, Kabul, Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires. Domestically, Margalit served in the Diplomatic Services Washington Field Office and in their Headquarters where she managed federal investigations into human trafficking, visa and passport fraud, sexual assault, child sexual abuse and identify fraud.

Most recently, Margalit served as a legislative affairs liaison representing the Department of State’s policies and priorities to Congress. She has extensive experience working across the interagency as well as with foreign partners on U.S. foreign policy goals and programs. She recently completed a Visiting Fellowship (2020-2021) in the Counterterrorism and Public Policy Program at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University. Her research at Duke focused on whether the State Department takes enough risk in the conduct of diplomacy to achieve its strategic goals.

Margalit’s next posting will be to serve as the Senior Regional Security Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay.