DETROIT , MI, UNITED STATES, January 11, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Anne Derse, a former top diplomat, who served as the United States ambassador to Lithuania (2009-2012) and to Azerbaijan (2006-2009) delivered the keynote address at a virtual forum of The PuLSE Institute on Monday, January 10, 2022 to mark the launching of a corporate social responsibility series named after Detroit business leader Cindy Pasky, the president and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions.

Ambassador Derse, who is the latest to appear before The PuLSE Institute, and is the first ex- longtime senior State Department official invited to address the high-profile platform of Detroit’s national anti-poverty think tank, during her keynote address, praised the work of outspoken journalist Bankole Thompson, the editor-in-chief and dean of The PuLSE Institute.

"I am delighted that through Cindy I have met Bankole Thompson and The PuLSE Institute here in Detroit. As I have gotten to know PulSE, it seems very special indeed to me in the world of independent, non-partisan think tanks. Bankole is a passionate advocate in the fight against the poverty and racial and economic inequality that persists in our society, when it should not even be tolerated. He gives respect, voice and agency to those affected. He calls out without compromise what is wrong in the world, what is right and what must be changed to achieve it. This truly makes Bankole a social prophet, and PuLSE, an increasingly powerful forum for the prophetic voice to be heard. We need such prophets today," Ambassador Derse said about Thompson in her address.

She added, "Through this lecture series, Cindy and Bankole, S3 and PuLSE, are uniting and deploying their corporate and prophetic power to provide

The PuLSE Institute was founded in 2018 based on the writings of Bankole Thompson, who is a nationally renowned Detroit journalist, author and culture critic. Thompson is a twice-a-week opinion columnist at The Detroit News, where his column on presidential politics, socioeconomic and cultural issues appear on Monday and Thursday. His illuminating and influential work on economic and racial justice issues has elevated the discourse around poverty and inequality in the nation's largest Black city.

Ambassador Derse, has held high-level positions managing economic relations at the U.S. mission to the European Union, and at the U.S. embassies in Korea, the Philippines and in Belgium, where she served as the last U.S. Commissioner on the Triparite Gold Commission.

She was Special Assistant for Asia 1993-95 and Executive Assistant 2003-04 to the Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs. In 2004-05, she assisted in establishing the new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, where she headed the Economic Section. She worked as Director for Bio-defense Policy at the Homeland Security Council at the White House in 2005-06, helping to write the President’s Plan for Fighting Pandemic Influenza. She retired from the Department of State in 2012. Earlier in her career she served in Singapore and Trinidad and Tobago.

An ordained minister in the Episcopal Church who attended the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C., Derse, is a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and a minister for community engagement at St. John’s Norwood Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, Maryland, where she worked since 2014 supporting advocacy and ministry on social justice issues including racial equity, food insecurity, gun violence prevention, support for immigrants and refugees, alleviating homelessness etc.

The PuLSE Institute’s National Advisory Panel is made up of some of the leading voices on poverty and inequality of the last half a century including Dr. Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Bernard Lafayette, national coordinator of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, the watershed moment of the Civil Rights Movement, who was a top aide of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Sister Simone Campbell, Catholic social justice champion, Bishop Charles E. Blake, Presiding Bishop Emeritus of the Church of God in Christ, the largest Black Christian denomination in the country and former presidential diarist Janis F. Kearney.

Ambassador Derse said this era demands truth tellers like Thompson.

"It is when we lose sight of these truths, when false prophets urge us to put ourselves and our selfish interests above all else, no matter what the cost to others, that communities begin to fray, and break down, and people become indifferent or hostile to their fellows – ignoring, or disrespecting, dehumanizing, even destroying, one another," Derse said. "Consider what is happening in America today. Our politics have devolved into tribalism, with an authoritarian cast, with some threatening and increasingly employing violence and lies to achieve political ends."

Read the rest of the speech here (https://thepulseinstitute.org/2022/01/10/in-historic-speech-former-u-s-ambassador-derse-applauds-pulse-institute-business-leader-pasky/).

Tina M. Patterson, Esq
The PuLSE Institute
+1 313 800 0142
email us here

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.