Diplomat From US Embassy in Brazil To Speak

DANBURY — The Regional YMCA of Western Connecticut is hosting a presentation on July 16 by Anthony Pahigian, currently a political officer at the US Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil. Mr Pahigian will be visiting Danbury under the auspices of the US Department of State’s “Hometown Diplomats” program. This outreach program, started by Secretary Colin Powell, selects one diplomat from each US Embassy abroad to visit local communities and either discuss foreign policy topics or answer questions about life in the US Foreign Service or the Foreign Service as a career.

Mr Pahigian joined the US Foreign service in November 1987. He has served in Bogota, Columbia, as a consular officer, in Washington, D.C., at the Department of State as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Politico-Military Affairs, chaired an interagency group on missile nonproliferation, and worked with the United Nations in Iraq doing weapons inspections after the Gulf War. He also served in Rome, Italy, as an environment, science, and technology officer, and in Bratislava, Slovakia, as the chief of the political section.

Mr Pahigian graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in government. He also received an MA from the University of Maryland in international security affairs in 1988.

Mr Pahigian is married to another foreign service officer, Nancy Cohen, and has a 4-year-old daughter, Tamar. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, Slovak, and Italian. He worked at the Regional YMCA’s Great Hollow Wilderness School in New Fairfield, Connecticut, seasonally for 10 years, serving as alternate director and chief instructor for two years.

This free program will take place in the Student Center at Western Connecticut State University’s Midtown Campus on Monday, July 16, starting at 7 pm. For more information, contact Bill McNamara at the YMCA Enrichment Center, 796-7776.