During the first Gulf War, Peter Kovach was an officer in a
public policy bureau working in the Middle East.
In the mid 1990s he was in Jordan aiding peacekeeping efforts
before and after their first elections.
And last year he was serving in the U.S. embassy in Islamabad,
Pakistan, during the earthquake that struck Kashmir.
But for this academic year, Kovach will serve as a diplomat in
residence at UCLA.
Kovach, a senior Foreign Service officer with 25 years of
experience, will be part of the Department of Public Policy in the
UCLA School of Public Affairs until the end of the academic
year.
As a diplomat in residence, Kovach will counsel students on
career opportunities available in the U.S. Department of State,
with an emphasis on the Foreign Service, which employs ambassadors
and other diplomats who staff American embassies abroad.
Kovach will also speak at Southern Californian universities on
issues of American diplomacy and teach a public diplomacy class at
UCLA this winter quarter.
“We’re happy to have him at our school,” said
Stanley Paul, a spokesman for the School of Public Affairs.
“He’ll be a great resource to the campus as a
whole.”
Kovach called his role at UCLA “a threefold position.
“First, I’m here as a recruiter.”
He said a large part of his job is meeting with students
one-on-one to introduce them to State Department job
opportunities.
“The second thing I do is I’m part of the academic
life of this community,” he said. “I know UCLA sees
itself as one of the great public research universities.
“I’m just privileged to be here.”
The third part of his job consists of serving as a State
Department representative for groups and universities in the
area.
Kovach has served in U.S. embassies in Japan, Jordan, Morocco,
Bahrain and Yemen.
He has had language training in German, Hindi-Urdu, Arabic,
Japanese, French, Turkish, Latin and Sanskrit.
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Kovach, who calls himself a public policy enthusiast, said he
attributed much of his desire to join the Foreign Service to a year
he studied abroad in India during college.
The diplomat said he has found his work in the Foreign Service
to be “very exciting.”
“I have had a great career in the Foreign Service,”
Kovach said.
He said he looks forward to coaching UCLA students to enter a
field that he has spent much of his career pursuing.
Arlene Leibowitz, chairwoman of UCLA’s Department of
Public Policy, called Kovach’s presence at UCLA a
“wonderful opportunity for … the public policy
department.”
She added that the class Kovach will teach this year addresses a
pressing subject for public policy today.
UCLA’s School of Public Affairs has hosted diplomats in
residence in the past, including last year, and Leibowitz said the
program provides students with refreshingly new perspectives on
public policy.
She also said Kovach’s experience in the Middle East is
particularly pertinent to current issues.
Only 15 diplomats in residence were appointed at American
universities by the Foreign Service.
Other universities hosting diplomats in residence this year
include UC Berkeley, Arizona State University and Duke
University.
Kovach received a master’s degree from the Fletcher School
of Law and Diplomacy and a master’s degree in Asian studies
from UC Berkeley.
He will be hosting an informational meeting about careers in the
State Department on Oct. 5.