Angela Dickey
Board of Directors
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"I first became aware of the war legacy issues involving Laos and the United States after being assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane a quarter century ago. In the year before moving to Laos, I studied the Lao language and read extensively about the country. Simultaneously, I was working on a master's degree in journalism, so I wrote my thesis on how the U.S. media responded to the Secret War in Laos. Serving as an American official in Laos, combined with deep reading into this history, made me rethink all my assumptions about America's role and purpose in the world. I am a member of Legacies of War because I believe it is the responsibility of all Americans to learn about and help resolve these issues that have been with us for far too long."
My Story
A former United States diplomat, Angela Dickey is passionate about non-profit leadership. She is the immediate past president of DACOR, a membership organization of foreign affairs professionals based in Washington, DC, and of the DACOR Bacon House Foundation (DBHF). Her voluntary positions at DACOR and DBHF over the last decade also included Assistant Secretary, Secretary, and Vice President.
As a career Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State from 1988 to 2013, Angela was posted to Canada, Mauritania, Yemen, Vietnam, and Laos (twice, the second time as deputy to the U.S. Ambassador). At the Department of State, she served variously as Iraq desk officer, Philippines desk officer, and office director for Maritime Southeast Asia. She was a fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Angela served from 2014 to 2016 as Secretary of the Board of the American Foreign Service Association, the professional association of the U.S. Foreign Service.
Angela’s interests include service to others especially in the fields of racial and social justice in the United States and the repair of historical harms in southeast Asia, where she lived for seven years. She has engaged in advocacy on Capitol Hill as part of the Friends (Quakers) Committee on National Legislation network.
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For more than a decade she has participated actively in and served as a facilitator with the national racial justice nonprofit Coming to the Table and its Linked Descendants network. She supports various organizations in the foreign affairs community, including not only DACOR but also the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, the Foreign Policy Discussion Group, and the Women’s Foreign Policy Group.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Angela worked in the publishing and newspaper fields. She earned a master of science in foreign service from Georgetown University, a master of arts in journalism from the University of Maryland, a graduate certificate in conflict transformation from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and a bachelor’s degree in French and political science from Berry College in Rome, Georgia.
