I am a professor and Programme Leader, International Studies, at Humboldt State University.

My Fellowship enabled me to conduct interviews with former US ambassadors to the United Kingdom. I had completed my PhD at the London School of Economics in International Relations and was working as speechwriter and communications advisor to the US Ambassador (while also a Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford). My academic and professional interests naturally combined into research on the 'special relationship' as well as diplomacy more broadly as both an institution of international affairs and the practical expression of international theory. I had worked with previous ambassadors so felt I would be well placed to interview them about their experience as stewards and keepers of a relationship that was significantly shaped, if not exactly created, by Sir Winston Churchill.

Since my Fellowship, I have written three books. One was entirely based on my Fellowship (The Embassy at Grosvenor Square). I have also produced a number of chapters, articles and presentations and continue to teach on diplomacy in California.