"U.S.--Cuban Relations 1900-1925: The Best of Enemies" December 8th, 2015 9:00-9:50 am and 10:15-11:05 am
FREE TO MONTANA SCHOOLS
Ambassador Huddleston was the Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1999 to 2002, during the custody battle between Fidel Castro and Cuban Americans over a five- year old child found floating on an inner tube in the Florida Straits. Ten years earlier she was Deputy Director and then promoted to Director of Cuban Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. As a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institute she wrote with Ambassador Carlos Pascual “Learning to Salsa – New Steps in U.S.- Cuban Relations” that provided a blue print for normalizing relations with Cuba, much of which President Obama followed. Vicki was the U.S. Ambassador to Mali and also to Madagascar and acting Ambassador in Ethiopia. She is a former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa. Earlier in her career she held the same position at the Department of State. Vicki received the U.S. Department of State’s Distinguished Honor Award and a Presidential Meritorious Service award. Most recently, Ambassador Huddleston was Chief of Party for a USAID – funded development project in Haiti. She lives in Santa Fe, NM and is married to Bob Huddleston; they have two children, Robert and Alexandra.Vicki claims Montana roots: when she was a young she lived in Kalispell and Hungry Horse for a period of ten years, her grandfather was one of Kalispell’s founding fathers.
