5 Questions: Will Marsh

Will Marsh, a 2005 Haldane grad, is a foreign service officer in Brazil for the U.S. Department of State, where he recently helped coordinate a visit by President Joe Biden to the Amazon rainforest.

You joined the foreign service six years ago. What drew you to the job?
For me, the key word was service. I see all that we do in Brazil and at embassies and consulates around the world as serving the American people by promoting our values, shared culture, businesses, democracy and human rights — the best of our country.

Do you select your stations?
You get some say, although less so on your first and second assignments. Generally, oversea assignments are two to three years. When you’re a year out, you bid on your next job. I speak Portuguese, and my first overseas assignment was in Brazil, in Sao Paulo, for two years. My wife [Allie, whom he met in Washington, D.C.] and I had a great experience, so when this position opened up [in Brasilia], we wanted to return. After Sao Paolo, I was stationed in Uganda. Allie had spent time in East Africa during a job in public health for an NGO [non-governmental organization, or nonprofit]. She worked in Rwanda and spent time in southern and west Africa. She was always the international-affairs-focused person, but I’m the one who joined the foreign service.

What are your daily responsibilities?
They vary. My title is special assistant to the ambassador [Elizabeth Bagley]. It’s a chief of staff role, where for any event or meeting, I make sure the right people are involved and that she is prepared. I also help make sure that we engage in things that advance the core of what we’re trying to do: democracy and human rights, economic partnership with Brazil, U.S. citizen security. Part of my job is sifting through the vast number of requests made of the ambassador and figuring out what is going to be the most impactful. 

Why did President Biden visit?
Combating climate change has always been a priority for him, from back when he was a senator and vice president. Preserving the Amazon rainforest is critical to that fight. No sitting U.S. president had ever visited the rainforest and, as his term comes to an end, he and the administration felt it was an important message to send that the U.S. is committed to helping Brazil support and conserve the Amazon. It was incredible to be a part of it — it also was my first visit to the Amazon. It made me want to return with my family. 

When you lived in Philipstown, you took photos for Hudson Valley Shakespeare. Do you shoot in Brazil?
Oh, for sure. No matter where I go, I bring a camera and try to document as much as I can. We’ve gone to some incredible places such as Rio de Janeiro and Iguazu Falls, and we visited Chile and Patagonia. There are so many beautiful places in South America; we try to make the most of it.