Episode 139: Bathsheba Crocker

Assistant Secretary Bathsheba Crocker Credit: United Nations Foundation

Diplomacy runs in Bathsheba Crocker's family.

Sheba and her father Chester Crocker are the first parent-child combination to have both served as Assistant Secretaries of State. Crocker-the-elder was a noted Africa specialist who served in the Regan administration, and Sheba describes his how influence and the influence of her mother's family, who were Jews who fled eastern Europe to Zimbabwe, had a profound impact on her worldview.

Bathsheba Crocker recently left her post as President Obama's Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. She had served in various positions in the State Department for the entirety of the Obama administration and before that she worked in the office of the United Nations' special envoy for Tsunami Recovery and Relief. (That "Special Envoy" was none other than Bill Clinton.)

Since leaving her post, Sheba admits she has more time on her hands these days and you fin…