As we approach our 40th anniversary in 2027, we are excited to share that the Roth Foundation has been growing a lot, in terms of both our programs and our board. We thought it might be interesting for you to “meet” the board members who make it all happen. So, welcome to our eighth Board Member Spotlight on Clare Ashley, on our newest board member!
The Lois Roth Foundation does something that feels increasingly rare and urgent: it insists that language, literature, and cultural exchange are not peripheral to public life but central to it. In a world that often measures value in purely economic terms, the Foundation makes the case that understanding one another across cultures and languages is one of the most important things we can invest in. That feels not just important but necessary.
I was introduced to the Foundation through a friend and former colleague, and was immediately drawn to the opportunity to work again alongside people I had spent ten deeply rewarding years with at the State Department. In those years, I served as Deputy Director for the Public Diplomacy Training Division at the Foreign Service Institute, where I had the privilege of designing and delivering tradecraft training for public affairs, cultural, and information officers—as well as their Locally Employed Staff counterparts—alongside electives in visual and digital diplomacy. It was there that I came to understand firsthand the extraordinary work that public diplomacy practitioners do around the world and how vital it is that they are well equipped to do it. The Foundation’s work felt like a natural continuation of everything I cared about during those years.
My professional life has been built at the intersection of learning, culture, and human connection, from designing curriculum and instruction for public diplomacy practitioners at the State Department, to leading volunteer training across sixty countries with the Peace Corps, and working in instructional design across multiple federal agencies and the private sector. More recently, I have been focusing on becoming a presence-based leadership coach, which has deepened my interest in how people grow through genuine encounters with people and perspectives different from their own. This all runs through the Foundation’s mission.
I am particularly drawn to the Roth Foundation’s Literature and Translation programs, as that connection is a personal one. My career began in France, where I worked for a translation agency serving major international companies, so I have understood from the very beginning what it means to carry meaning across the boundary of language. As I transitioned into instructional design, the materials I created were frequently translated into multiple languages, which kept that awareness close. And then at the State Department, I had the pleasure of working with practitioners from countries across the world, celebrating the extraordinary range of literary cultures and languages they brought with them. What I most look forward to is working with the remarkable people who can do what great translators do: not just render words accurately, but carry the cultural nuances that allow readers to truly encounter an author’s original intent.
I am genuinely honored to be joining this board. Public diplomacy matters more today than ever, and it can only truly succeed when it is carried by people who are knowledgeable, committed, and deeply rooted in its values. The Foundation’s mission is one I believe in deeply. As someone who has lived between cultures and languages her whole life, I understand in a very immediate way why this work matters, and I look forward to contributing to it.
