About

Constance “Conny” C. Arvis, representing the U.S. Department of State, is a National Security Affairs Fellow for the academic year 2017-­‐2018 at the Hoover Institution.

Ms. Arvis is a Senior Foreign Service officer with the rank of Counselor (OC). Her most recent assignment was Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Luanda, Angola (June 2015-­‐July 2017). Based on her work, Ms. Arvis has been nominated for State’s “James A. Baker III Award for Outstanding Deputy Chief of Mission.”

Prior to Ms. Arvis’ assignment in Angola, she served on the staff of Deputy Secretary of State Heather Higginbottom and Deputy Secretary Thomas Nides, where she specialized in issues related to Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Central Asia, climate change, and environment. Immediately prior to those assignments, she served two years in Pakistan as the deputy political councilor at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, and as the acting Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar – the latter often considered among State’s most dangerous postings.

Other prior assignments include serving as a seconded member of the Department of Defense’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) in Iraq; political advisor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York where Ms. Arvis’ portfolio included Security Council issues; and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for East Asia and the Pacific.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ms. Arvis practiced law in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is a member of the state bars of Hawaii and California. She holds a JD from the UCLA School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Duke University in Political Science and Economics.

Ms. Arvis spent her formative childhood years in Santa Barbara, and considers herself a Californian at heart. She has family in California, Oregon, and London. In her free time, Ms. Arvis loves to be outdoors. In 2006 she participated in the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society’s Washington DC triathlon program, and was the highest fund raiser for that event. Ms. Arvis speaks German, Portuguese, and some Pashto, and is the recipient of four of State’s individual Superior Honor awards, as well as multiple meritorious and group awards.

As a fellow at Hoover, Ms. Arvis wants to concentrate her research on diaspora communities in the context of international development assistance: can their ties to, and often inherent interest in, their countries of origin be shaped into an effective mechanism to “give back” in the context of decreasing government assistance world-­‐wide.

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