On Joan Plaisted’s first day of class in 1963, she sat in the front row as then dean Ernest Griffith told the School of International Service’s incoming class of 90 students that only two or three of them would go on to careers in the US Foreign Service. “I was determined to be among them,” the Willmar, Minnesota, native said. Plaisted not only went on to rise through the ranks of the foreign service—with overseas assignments in Paris, Hong Kong, Geneva, Taipei, and Rabat—she also became the first female SIS graduate appointed a United States ambassador, serving in the Marshall Islands and Kiribati from 1995 to 2000. 
 
Ambassador Plaisted credits the late professor Kenneth Landon with nurturing her interest in Thailand and inspiring her to pursue a master’s degree in Asian Studies at SIS. She also recalls the late professor Abdul Aziz Said encouraging her to read Plato’s The Republic to expand her way of thinking. “SIS gave me the foundation to achieve my dream of becoming a foreign service officer and go on to serve my country, both at home and abroad,” says Ambassador Plaisted, 1993 winner of AU’s Lodestar Award, which recognizes an outstanding graduate who best exemplifies the university's values.
 
A member of the SIS Dean’s Advisory Council, Ambassador Plaisted has made annual donations to the school for many years. She has also named AU a beneficiary of her individual retirement account to create an endowed scholarship for SIS students who aspire to join the foreign service. “Today’s students are so talented. I hope my scholarship enables them to take advantage of all that AU, SIS, and Washington have to offer,” she says.

Ambassador Plaisted—who splits her time between Washington, the South of France, and destinations in between—remains engaged in global issues as a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, Women Ambassadors Serving America, and the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs. Her life, leadership, and support of SIS are an inspiration to students determined to follow in her footsteps and accept President Dwight Eisenhower’s charge at SIS’s 1957 groundbreaking to “wage peace” in the world.
 
For information on how your charitable estate plan can create a legacy as part of American University’s Change Can’t Wait Campaign, contact Seth Speyer, executive director of planned giving, at (202) 885-3411 or speyer@american.edu; or visit american.edu/plannedgiving.