The publication is reproduced in full below:
IN RECOGNITION OF DR. JULIA NESHEIWAT
______
HON. MICHAEL WALTZ
of florida
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Mr. WALTZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the service and career of combat veteran and public servant Dr. Julia Nesheiwat, who has devoted her entire life in service to this country and by every metric, exemplifies duty, honor, and the American Dream.
Born to Ben and Hayat Nesheiwat, Jordanian immigrant parents who worked tirelessly to provide for her and her four siblings, Dr. Nesheiwat graduated from Stetson University. She then went on to earn her M.A. in security studies from Georgetown University, Washington D.C. and a Ph.D. from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan. Dr. Nesheiwat is a lifelong member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the Governing Advisory Council for the World Economic Forum.
After the September 11 attacks, Dr. Nesheiwat was immediately deployed in the U.S. Army military intelligence corps. She served multiple tours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq for which she was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. Dr. Nesheiwat subsequently was selected to serve on the U.S. Presidential Commission on Intelligence Capabilities Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, leading the North Korea and Iran policy steering committee.
She went on to help establish the newly formed office of the Director of National Intelligence as the Chief of Staff for policy and planning, where she managed the integration and collaboration of analysis and reporting with all intelligence agencies.
During her time at the Department of State, Dr. Nesheiwat served as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy where she built a new bureau that addressed the nexus of energy, climate, technology, development, international programs, and public-private partnerships. She then collaborated with the Department of Defense to create a new curriculum on energy security as a visiting professor at the Naval Post Graduate School.
Dr. Nesheiwat continued her call to service as the first U.S. Deputy Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs focused on the release of U.S. citizens legally detained or held hostage abroad. Dr. Nesheiwat's diplomatic work was instrumental in the release of dozens of Americans illegally held overseas as well as her work with the families of those detained.
Returning to her home state of Florida, Dr. Nesheiwat was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to serve as Florida's first Chief Resilience Officer, a cabinet-level position tasked with preparing Florida for the environmental, physical, and economic impacts of sea level rise.
In 2020, Dr. Nesheiwat once again answered the call to serve, this time in the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Resilience. At such a perilous time in our nation's history, she brought her extensive expertise on national security and resilience to develop strategies to help protect America against the COVID pandemic, natural disasters, critical infrastructure protection, foreign election interference, civil unrest, counter-
narcotics, and wildlife and trafficking crimes.
Dr. Nesheiwat was later appointed to serve a four-year term as a Commissioner on the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. The Commission is an independent federal agency that advises the President and Congress on domestic and international Arctic research. She is also a Distinguished Fellow with the Atlantic Council with the Global Energy Center.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating the lifelong servant leadership of Dr. Julia Nesheiwat and her career spanning the Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations. She has brought great credit to her country and we thank her as she continues to serve the American people.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 188
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