Family

Embracing your extended family

One of the things that has really helped me in family relations has been to help the kids connect with their extended family. We’ve really made a concerted effort to be able to do that so that those relationships are really strong. In raising the kids, we’ve always been able to say, you’re not just responding to your immediate family. There are all these other people that are supporting you and that believe in you, that are looking after you. So you are also accountable to them. And the uncles, aunts, grandparents are present enough so that their opinions are important. Every year we spend Christmas Eve with my family in Washington and every Christmas afternoon with my husband’s family in Knoxville. Every Christmas morning at 6am, we pack up the car and drive nine hours to my husband’s side of the family. It has became an important ritual. We let our kids open some gifts early and let them eat McDonald’s on the way.

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Maria Otero

Maria served as U.S. Undersecretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights from 2009 to 2013. There she oversaw U.S. foreign relations on the global spectrum of civilian security issues, including population, refugees, human trafficking, narcotics, global criminal justice and countering violent extremism. She also served as President Barack Obama’s Special Representative for Tibetan Issues. Born in La Paz, Bolivia, Otero was formerly president and chief executive officer of ACCION International, a leader in microfinance and economic development working in 26 countries. Prior to ACCION, where she worked for 23 years, Otero was the economist for Latin America at the Women in Development office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and she served for five years at the Centre for Development and Population Activities. She was an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins’ Nitze School for Advanced International Studies before joining the U.S. Department of State. Otero has served on several nonprofit and corporate boards. She currently serves as a trustee for Herbalife, the Public Welfare Foundation, Development Alternatives, Inc., the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and Oxfam America. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University, and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College.