Our Board
Reuben Brigety, Chair
Currently serving as US Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa, Reuben Brigety, II, Ph.D. is a leader, diplomat, policy maker and academic. Previously, he served as the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of the South and as the Mayor of Sewanee, Tennessee. Dr. Brigety currently serves as an Adjunct Senior Fellow for African Peace and Security, Council on Foreign Relations, and a Member of the Board of Counselors of McLarty Associates, Washington, D.C. During the Obama Administration, Dr. Brigety served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs, and then as U.S. Ambassador to the African Union and as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. He is a 1995 Distinguished Midshipman Graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Reuben is on a temporary leave of absence from leadership on this scholarship board due to the legal requirements of his ambassadorship, which prevent active participation on 501(c)(3) boards.
Victoria Moore, Member
A native of Burke, Virginia, Commander Victoria Moore graduated first in her class from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2008 with a B.S. in Information Technology National Security Affairs and a minor in French. She was also the first woman in U.S. Naval Academy history to be selected as Color Company Commander in 2008. She then studied abroad as a George J. Mitchell Scholar at Dublin City University in Ireland, graduating with an M.A. in Development with First Class Honors in March 2010.
She was a Surface Warfare Officer from 2009-2014, serving on the USS GREEN BAY in San Diego, California and the USS MUSTIN (DDG 89), forward-deployed in Yokosuka, Japan. In 2013, she reported to the U.S. Naval Academy to serve as a Political Science Instructor. In July 2014, she was selected as a Foreign Area Officer with a concentration in Africa.
CDR Moore was the Chief of the Office of Security Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Maputo, Mozambique from 2015 to 2018. She then served as the Security Force Assistance Lead for the N52 Africa Engagement Group at U.S. Naval Forces Africa in Naples, Italy from 2018 until 2021. She currently serves as the Naval Attaché to U.S. Embassy Abuja, Nigeria.
She is a certified Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Victim Advocate and speaks French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian.
Paul Angelo, Member
Paul J. Angelo, Ph.D., assumed his position as Director of the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies on June 21, 2022, following his selection by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. His previous work at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) included roles as the fellow for Latin America studies and as an International Affairs Fellow. There he focused on US-Latin American relations, transnational crime, security assistance, and immigration. A former active-duty naval officer, Angelo has extensive experience in military and government service.
During his tenure as an International Affairs Fellow, he also represented the US Department of State at the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where he managed the ambassador's security and justice portfolio. In the Political Section, he provided technical assistance to the Honduran police reform commission; supported strategy development and agenda-setting for Afro-descendent, indigenous, and LGBTQ+ networks to improve civic engagement; and led policy and legal analysis on violence, crime, and migration trends.
His previous service in the Navy included tours in a United Kingdom-based NATO position, on board a destroyer deployed to the Asia-Pacific region, and as an instructor at the US Naval Academy, where he taught Spanish and Latin American politics courses. During his naval career, Angelo deployed to Colombia on three occasions over the course of more than a decade. During his longest mission in Colombia, he served as the US Embassy's principal liaison to the Colombian military and police in the highly conflictive Pacific coast.
He was directly responsible for the planning of inter-agency missions focused on improving local governance, rule of law, and security in support of Plan Colombia, and he spearheaded the coordination and implementation of the Embassy’s largest bilateral humanitarian mission in 2011.
In 2022, President Biden appointed Dr. Angelo to the US Naval Academy Board of Visitors. Dr. Angelo continues to serve as a Commander in the US Navy Reserve. He is also the author of the book From Peril to Partnership: U.S. Security Assistance and the Bid to Stabilize Colombia and Mexico (Oxford University Press, 2024). Dr. Angelo’s written commentary has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Miami Herald.
Dr. Angelo holds a BS in political science (with honors) from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was awarded the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, an MPhil in Latin American studies (with distinction) from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a PhD in politics from University College London. In 2022, the Guatemalan government awarded Dr. Angelo the "Monja Blanca" (White Nun Orchid) medal (second class) for meritorious service in support of the Guatemalan people.
Katie Sliwoski, Member
Katie Sliwoski is a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. She is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and 2013 Rhodes Scholar to Oxford. She currently serves as the Operations Officer for Recruiting Station San Diego, 12th Marine Corps District.
Drew Calcagno, Executive Director
Drew Calcagno is a Principal at Google, focusing on product operations and strategy for the company’s Research efforts in artificial intelligence, fundamental science, and more. He’s a former government official and naval officer, having served non-politically at the White House, at the Pentagon, and aboard a forward-deployed warship. At those posts, he wrote artificial intelligence policy for the Chief Technology Officer of the United States and managed machine learning programs for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. Born in Boston and living in New York City, Calcagno graduated from the University of Oxford as a Rotary Scholar, the University of London - SOAS as a Fulbright Scholar, and the US Naval Academy with distinction.