![\"Ayman](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/safadi-microphone-may17.jpg\")
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The small Middle Eastern nation of Jordan is bordered by Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which makes foreign relations incredibly important for the country.\u00a0Earlier this year, when King Abdullah named a new Minister of Foreign Affairs<\/a>, he turned to a trusted advisor — who just so happens to be a Baylor graduate.<\/p>\n Ayman Safadi<\/a>, MA \u201992, was appointed as Jordan\u2019s minister of foreign affairs\u00a0in January, the latest\u00a0step in a career that has taken him from Baylor’s\u00a0Castellaw Communications Building to key roles in the Jordanian government. Safadi spent several years as a King\u2019s Advisor, serving as second-in-command among advisors to King Abdullah, and also spent time as the country\u2019s deputy prime minister.<\/p>\n Safadi\u2019s journey to the highest levels of international talks sprang from a career in journalism. After earning his master\u2019s degree in international journalism at Baylor, he returned to Jordan and climbed the ranks at the Jordan Times<\/em> to the role of editor-in-chief. He went on to lead Jordan\u2019s Royal Press Service and the Jordan Radio and Television Corporation, and served as editor-in-chief of al-Ghad<\/em>, an independent Jordanian paper. There, his efforts fighting for the freedom of kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll, who was imprisoned three months in Iraq, helped lead to her release in 2006. Before returning to government, he led Path Arabia, a political communication and strategy group, as the organization\u2019s CEO.<\/p>\n Despite living thousands of miles away from Waco, Safadi has stayed close to Baylor in the 25 years since receiving his master\u2019s. His most recent visit to campus came last year, when he delivered the keynote address at the Hankamer School of Business Global Business Forum<\/a>. There, he told students<\/a> what he believed to be a key tool to fighting extremist ideologies: “A more positive narrative. A narrative that celebrates life. A narrative that celebrates what is common among us humans. A narrative that tells the story of millions and millions of young men and women in the region who are trying to make a better life. It\u2019s the pursuit of happiness. It\u2019s the pursuit of opportunity.”<\/p>\n Sic \u2019em, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi!<\/p>\n You might also like:<\/em><\/strong> The small Middle Eastern nation of Jordan is bordered by Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which makes foreign relations incredibly important for the country.\u00a0Earlier this year, when King Abdullah named a new Minister of Foreign Affairs, he turned to a trusted advisor — who just so happens to be a Baylor graduate. Ayman Safadi, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-extraordinary-stories","category-honors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n*\u00a0Former Baylor business professor elected vice president of Ghana<\/a> (Jan. 2017)<\/em>
\n*\u00a0U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait \u2014 and a Baylor grad<\/a> (March 2015)
\n*\u00a0International studies major celebrates sixth decade at Baylor<\/a> (Sept. 2014)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"