Authentic leadership served as the heartbeat of the Women in Leadership Breakfast on March 3, where a packed room at the Constitution Hall gathered for a masterclass in staying true to oneself while navigating the highest echelons of global power. 

Ambassador Shefali Razdan Duggal, who served as US ambassador to the Netherlands from 2022 to 2025, shared the stage with Amy K. Dacey, SPA/MA ’95, executive director of the Sine Institute of Policy and Politics and the Democracy Innovation Lab. During the annual event hosted by University Advancement and the AU Women’s Network, Razdan Duggal—the first person of color sent by the US to lead the mission in the Netherlands and a Sine Institute 250+ at American Distinguished Lecturer—offered a powerful thesis that defined her time in the Hague: “You can do very important work and not have to turn into something you’re not.”

The event, Women Shaping Peace, Power, and Policy, offered a transparent look at the intersection of identity, integrity, and international diplomacy. Alycia Bennett Bell, CAS/BA ’14, chair of the AU Women’s Network, welcomed a crowd of university leadership and alumni by noting that AU women are known for making a “splash.” 

“We’re loud. We’re spicy. And we’re very much involved in the conversation,” she said, adding that the morning’s theme is “woven into the very fabric of what makes this university thrive.”

President Jon Alger tied this modern leadership to the university’s “proud legacy” of women’s education, noting that AU’s Washington College of Law was founded in 1896 as the first law school in the world by women, for women. “Diversity, inclusion, and excellence are not competing concepts,” Alger said. “They go hand in hand in higher education.”

The Unspoken Tax on “Firsts”

While the atmosphere was celebratory, the dialogue was grounded in the rigorous expectations placed on women—particularly women of color—in positions of power. This commitment to representation took a physical form upon her arrival, when Razdan Duggal noted that the embassy lacked a formal gallery of past leaders. She commissioned a “wall of ambassadors” that placed her own portrait in “Technicolor” directly beside a sketch of John Adams, the first US envoy to the Netherlands.

As the first Indian American woman to serve as a bilateral U.S. ambassador in Europe, Razdan Duggal described the profound responsibility of that visual shift, noting that at the time of her confirmation, only 9 percent of US ambassadors were women of color. This scarcity created a deep sense of purpose to ensure future generations would have the same opportunity, driving her to ensure that “the first person who was there completely knocks it out of the park beyond measure.”

That relentless drive for excellence required her to be “all the things,” she told the audience.

“I had to be talented, smart. I studied each briefing for three hours,” she said. “In addition, I had to present in a way that may not seem fair, but I wore heels six days a week, 10 hours a day. I looked nice every day. I was exhausted every day.”

The Art of the “Long View”

During the fireside chat, Dacey—a friend of the ambassador for nearly 20 years—asked how her approach to diplomacy evolved on the job. Razdan Duggal explained that her childhood, raised by a single mother working minimum-wage jobs, taught her to be an “exceptionally good listener” and “genuinely curious.”

These traits became her greatest diplomatic tools during tense negotiations over semiconductor technology with the Dutch company ASML. Rather than acting as a “hammer,” Razdan Duggal relied on the art of compromise and empathy. “Hammers—they don't do well,” she said. “Creating adversaries, even sometimes enemies now out of friends, it’s so shortsighted.”

Her tenure was marked by both policy wins and deep cultural impact, symbolized by the “Tulipa Shefali,” a fuchsia and yellow tulip named in her honor by the Dutch government. The gesture held profound significance, as the tulip is the national symbol of the Netherlands—an emblem with a cultural significance equivalent to the American bald eagle. Razdan Duggal remains the first ambassador from any nation to receive such a tribute.

A Legacy Beyond Symbols

The conversation took a poignant turn as Razdan Duggal discussed the “long view” regarding the removal of efforts she had championed to create a more inclusive and accurate historical record. 

Chief among these were displays added to the visitors center at the Netherlands American Cemetery in September 2024 to honor the Black soldiers who buried the dead there during World War II—men whose vital, albeit traumatizing, work had gone unrecognized for generations. Razdan Duggal refused to criticize the change in the press, choosing instead to give the new administration a chance to lead.

“Irrespective of people trying to erase what you’ve done, how you made people feel cannot be erased,” she said, citing Maya Angelou. She concluded with a call for the next generation of AU students to remain fearless and authentic. 

“If it takes you longer to get where you’re going, but you’re being true to yourself, it’s just better.”