PODCAST | Bringing Home Americans Stranded Abroad due to COVID-19

Dr. Ambika Bumb is a Science & Technology Policy Fellow working in the Crisis Management and Strategy Office at the U.S. Department of State. Within this office, she was part of several tasks forces that played major roles during the coronavirus pandemic, including the Repatriation Task Force that brought home American citizens stranded abroad during the early months of the pandemic. This repatriation effort was unprecedented in many ways but was executed quickly and efficiently. For their work, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan resolution commending the Crisis Management and Strategy Office and the Department of State presented with the Distinguished Honor Award. In this episode Dr. Bumb talks about the challenges that she and her colleagues faced while bringing Americans home, and about how diverse parts of her academic and professional life seemed to converge in her work at the Department of State.

Participants

 Ambika Bumb, Ph.D., 2019-20 Executive Branch Fellow at State Department

Host

 Philip Ko, Ph.D., 2019-20 Executive Branch Fellow at National Science Foundation, Twitter: @PhilKo19

Producers        

Philip Ko, Ph.D., 2019-20 Executive Branch Fellow at National Science Foundation, Twitter: @PhilKo19

Chris Parsons, Ph.D., 2020-22 Executive Branch Fellow at National Science Foundation. Twitter: @ECMParsons

Executive Producer      

Philip Ko, PhD., 2019-20 Executive Branch Fellow at National Science Foundation

Twitter: @PhilKo19

Image Credit: Borodin photography/ Wikipedia creative commons