Summative Steps to Enact Change: A Conversation with Samantha Power
by Ali Lai
Few people can say that they have been the face of the United States on an international scale. As former U.S. Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Samantha Power has publicly navigated many tough conversations. She has gone toe-to-toe with Russian diplomats regarding events in the Ukraine and Syria, negotiated difficult sanctions against North Korea, and helped facilitate the United States’ response to the Ebola outbreak. Whether it be an intense discussion or a lighthearted exchange, her charisma and resolve are readily apparent. These same qualities shone through in Power’s interview with Dr. Sara Bleich, Professor of Public Health Policy, at Harvard T.H. Chan’s Voices in Leadership studio on December 13, 2017.
Her achievements prior to her tenure as the 28th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations are equally impressive. She began her career as a journalist reporting from places such as Bosnia, East Timor, Kosovo, Rwanda, and Sudan. She went on to become a best-selling author — her book, “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” recounting the previously untold stories of genocide in the 20th century, won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Award. Twice named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People,” she founded the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School, and holds dual appointments at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School.
Mentorship & Additive Steps
Asked about her career trajectory, Power confesses that U.S. Ambassador to the UN is not something that she could have envisioned, instead attributing her choices to intuition:
“I went always by smell, you know, and by what I felt would leave me better off after my next thing — knowing more, with a new skill.”
Her instincts eventually led her to a position as the assistant to Mort Abromawitz, former U.S. Ambassador and then-president of the Carnegie Endowment. Abromawitz would become a mentor to Power. She states that it was his infectious passion about the situation in Bosnia that kindled her own interest in international human rights. However, she recognized that interest alone would not suffice to effect change of any consequence without being accompanied by tangible skills. She pursued journalism and later utilized her investigative prowess as a diplomat.
Stepping Up to the Tee
Power evoked the imagery of stepping up to a golfing tee when talking about her daily happenings as U.S. Ambassador to the UN. She states,
“Even though I don’t play golf, I have stood at tees before. And I always think that I can hit it really far, and it just looks so- it’s just right there, and there’s no one in your way. And that’s what it felt like. And then it turns out people spend the whole day getting in your way, and it’s very hard to make a difference.”
This metaphor reminds us of the chance we have each day to change our surroundings for the better while also recognizing the inherent difficulty in undertaking such a task. We may hit a hole-in-one, shake the trees in the distance, or miss the ball completely. The importance lies not necessarily in the result, but, rather, in the act of confronting the challenge.
Impulse to Get Close
When speaking of lessons learned during the Ebola crisis, Power elaborates on her “impulse to get close.” It meant being in the field even though close family members lamented at the idea of her traveling to places beleaguered with dangerous disease. However, she did not let the fears within others or herself hold her back from being present on the ground, saying,
“I think getting close is always to a leader’s example — to a leader’s benefit. It also sets, I think, a positive example at a time when fear is omnipresent, not only, again, in our political circles, but also among our citizens, for a person to go into the eye of the storm and say, look, there are these protocols, and if you obey these protocols, we can do this.”
Power personified a human rights violation by utilizing a doctor who treated the victims of Syrian government chemical weapons. In this manner she spoke beyond the talking points to the real lives affected, a strategy she accredits to her days in journalism. Through the synergistic utilization of her journalistic background and diplomatic role, Power embodies the strength of summative steps.
For more from the Voices in Leadership (@VoicesHSPH) series at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (@HarvardHSPH), visit www.hsph.harvard.edu/voices.
Story by Ali Lai, a MD candidate at the Creighton University school of Medicine and MPH candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Story edited by Sohini Mukherjee, a second year student in the Master of Science program in Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, interested in gender equity, maternal health, and health policy and governance.
