{"id":9586,"date":"2026-04-16T13:22:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/director-of-morehead-cains-global-programs-brings-26-years-of-diplomacy-home-to-carolina-unc-hussman-school-of-journalism-and-media\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T13:22:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:22:03","slug":"director-of-morehead-cains-global-programs-brings-26-years-of-diplomacy-home-to-carolina-unc-hussman-school-of-journalism-and-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/director-of-morehead-cains-global-programs-brings-26-years-of-diplomacy-home-to-carolina-unc-hussman-school-of-journalism-and-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Director of Morehead-Cain\u2019s global programs brings 26 years of diplomacy home to Carolina – UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

|<\/span>By Nicole Juzaitis
This story was originally published at global.unc.edu<\/a>.<\/em>
When Ben Ousley Naseman \u201996<\/a> first arrived at Carolina in 1992, he imagined a future as an international correspondent, specifically a photographer.
Instead, his curiosity about the world \u2014 combined with the academic opportunities and global experiences he found at Carolina \u2014 set him on a different path: a 26-year career as an American diplomat. Now, he is the director of global programs at the Morehead-Cain Foundation.
\u201cI came from western North Carolina, from Cleveland County,\u201d he said. \u201cCarolina showed me that you can come from a small town and be prepared to operate on a global stage.\u201d
As an undergraduate at Carolina, and as a Morehead\u2011Cain Scholar himself, Ousley Naseman studied journalism and international studies, now global studies. Morehead-Cain\u2019s four-part Summer Enrichment Program includes outdoor leadership, civic engagement, global exploration and early professional experience.
Across these summers, he practiced wilderness leadership through NOLS in Wyoming\u2019s Wind River Mountains; community-facing public service with the Tucson Police Department; conservation policy work at The Conservation Fund in Washington, D.C.; and cross-cultural collaboration through a documentary photography project with University of Havana students and staff in Cuba. These experiences, along with the curiosity and communication skills he developed through his studies, helped Ousley Naseman build the skill set he would rely on as a diplomat.
\u201cIt all tied together \u2014 my majors, the different experiences I had as a Morehead Scholar. It was a really nice package by the time I was ready to leave Carolina,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can take what you get here and move it with you around the world.\u201d
In his final year at Carolina, Ousley Naseman took the Foreign Service Officer Test.
\u201cI was a Foreign Service Officer for 26 years, mostly as a consular officer. Throughout it all, I felt like I got to give back a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cI even had the opportunity to be an instructor at the Foreign Service Institute, teaching officers getting ready to go out on their first assignment.\u201d
Assignments took him to Mexico, Colombia, Poland, India, Egypt, Greece and Afghanistan. Throughout, he often found himself drawing on his Carolina education.
\u201cForeign Service Officers are really the first recorders of history,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re meeting people, gathering information, understanding events as they happen and then reporting back to Washington \u2014 skills I first learned at Carolina.\u201d
In his final two weeks at the State Department, Ousley Naseman was already preparing to return to Chapel Hill to join the Morehead-Cain Foundation. Around this time, a group of Morehead-Cain Scholars on the foundation\u2019s international gap year program, which enables scholars to spend a year abroad before beginning at Carolina, tracked him down through the alumni network and reached out to meet him in Athens. He gave them a tour of the consular section and shared some of what he had learned throughout his career.
\u201cMeeting him there in Athens was surreal. Suddenly I was talking to someone who\u2019d actually done the work I wanted to do and could show me how to get there myself,\u201d said Paige Greene, one of the scholars in Athens that day. \u201cAnd I just thought \u2014 if everyone [at the foundation] is this kind, I\u2019m set.\u201d
In October 2024, Ousley Naseman returned to Carolina to help launch and lead the Morehead-Cain Global Fellows program, an initiative designed to bring exceptional undergraduate students from around the world to study at UNC-Chapel Hill for one year.
The program reflects the foundation\u2019s mission to identify, invest in and empower a community of dynamic, purpose-driven leaders around the world.
\u201cThe world is only going to become more connected,\u201d Ousley Naseman said. \u201cGiving Carolina students the chance to learn alongside students from other countries creates conversations that expand everyone\u2019s perspective.\u201d
The inaugural class of global fellows<\/a> arrived in fall 2025, representing Azerbaijan, Brazil, India, Nigeria and Turkey. Each fellow was nominated by a university or organization in their home country and selected through a rigorous international application process. For students in the program, Ousley Naseman has become both a mentor and a guide, from the application process throughout their time in the U.S.
\u201cHe\u2019s someone we go to for anything,\u201d said Disha Parasu, a global fellow from Vellore Institute of Technology-Chennai in India. \u201cYou can talk to him about things he understands. He\u2019s been there and experienced it, too.\u201d
As part of the program, the global fellows traveled with Ousley Naseman to places like western North Carolina, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York City. These trips are designed to give the students a broader understanding of North Carolina and the U.S., including their complexity and influence, so the fellows better understand this country when they return home.
\u201cBen\u2019s experience and leadership have been central to bringing the Global Fellows program to life in a moment of disruption,\u201d said Morehead-Cain President Chris Bradford. \u201cHe is a tremendous representative of the United States, UNC-Chapel Hill and Morehead-Cain in his conversations with stakeholders across the world. And he brings an infectious optimism that touches everyone he engages with each day.\u201d
The program will welcome a new class in the fall, expanding its partner universities to include two new institutions in Malaysia.
In addition to his work with the global fellows, Ousley Naseman advises Carolina students preparing for international experiences and mentors those interested in diplomacy and public service. His experience serving on selection committees for international programs, such as Fulbright, gives him a clear sense of what competitive opportunities require and how students can position themselves for success.
\u201cHe\u2019s really the person who brings a global perspective,\u201d said Elias Guedira, a graduating Morehead\u2011Cain Scholar. \u201cBecause he\u2019s lived abroad for so long and understands the U.S.\u2019s impact firsthand, hearing about his experiences makes international paths feel much more real.\u201d
Returning to Carolina has also allowed him to reconnect with the interests that first shaped his own path. This year, he served as a judge for the Carolina Global Photography Competition<\/a>, led by UNC Global Affairs, which invites students, faculty, staff and alumni to submit photos that capture unique global experiences and perspectives.
\u201cBen has a remarkable ability to connect people across differences (cultures, disciplines and educational systems) in ways that help build meaningful partnerships and strengthen the community we are trying to create,\u201d said Melanie Godinez\u2011Cedillo, assistant director of recruitment and selection at Morehead\u2011Cain. \u201cI\u2019ve been genuinely grateful for the experience, support and care he brings to this work.\u201d
Through the Global Fellows program and the expanding network of international partnerships across campus, Ousley Naseman hopes to continue strengthening those connections.
\u201cUNC-Chapel Hill is a flagship public university. It can take students from anywhere and prepare them to engage with the world,\u201d he said. \u201cThe more we can bring the world to Carolina \u2014 and Carolina to the world \u2014 the stronger those relationships will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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|By Nicole JuzaitisThis story was originally published at global.unc.edu.When Ben Ousley Naseman \u201996 first arrived at Carolina in 1992, he imagined a future as an international correspondent, specifically a photographer.Instead, his curiosity about the world \u2014 combined with the academic opportunities and global experiences he found at Carolina \u2014 set him on a different path: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}