Schultz retired on disability in April 2023 from the U.S. Department of State. Prior to retirement she served as the Senior Adviser and South and Central Asia Team Chief in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. She was the Department’s lead expert on nonproliferation, security, and strategic stability issues as they pertain to South Asia, and crafted policy proposals and engaged in direct negotiations aimed at preventing the use or spread of nuclear weapons. In true Scoville fashion, she identified the need to improve nonproliferation education in South Asia and enlisted interagency support, secured funding, and oversaw the awarding of more than 40 nonproliferation fellowships for Pakistani graduate-level students. While focusing on South Asia for the majority of her career at State, her initial efforts in government related to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, nuclear weapon-free zones, and the East Asia/Pacific region. A subject matter expert on confidence-building measures (CBMs), she also served as a delegate to the Four Party Peace Talks aimed at creating a formal peace treaty (vice the existing Armistice) to end the Korean War.
She was a frequent guest lecturer at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute on South Asia nonproliferation and strategic stability issues. She was accepted into and completed in 2012 the National Security Executive Leadership Seminar at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, an opportunity for State Department officials to explore challenges to American interests and the leadership skills needed for success in the policy implementation process. In her 26 years of federal service, first at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) and then at State, she received fourteen Superior and five Meritorious Honor awards.
Prior to joining government, she served as a Senior Research Analyst at the nonprofit Center for Defense Information where she researched and wrote articles for their monthly publication and was an award-winning screenwriter and producer for its television program – America’s Defense Monitor – which aired nationwide on PBS. She earned awards from the Houston International Film Festival in 1998, and New York University’s Center for War, Peace, and the News Media in 1993. Publications (from pre-government days) include chapters on Arms Control and Disarmament in the 1996 and 1997 editions of A Global Agenda, published by the United Nations Association of the USA, and entries on Accidental Nuclear War and Nuclear Treaties in An Encyclopedia of War and Ethics published in 1996 by Greenwood Press.
She is a 2002 graduate of the U.S. Joint Military Intelligence College’s Post-Graduate Intelligence Program. She was the founding director of the State Department’s own choral ensemble known as The T-Tones, and previously sang in a number of Washington, DC area choral ensembles. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Ripon College in June 2019 for professional achievement and service to the college.
…The Scoville Fellowship has had a tremendous impact on my life. It launched my career by bringing me to DC, giving me Washington experience in my field of dreams, and providing me with a support network of Scoville Board members and former fellows. I’ve always known that whatever I do for a living, I want to do something that will make the world a better place. The Scoville Fellowship has helped me to make this idealistic goal a reality.