I’m Roslyn Waters-Jensen, raised in rural South Florida by resilient, phenomenal, force-of-nature parents and grandparents just after the U.S. Civil Rights era. The values they instilled in me, along with my lived experience growing up as a Black child in the southern United States, have profoundly influenced my personal decisions, my activism, my professional journey, and the person I continue to become as a wife, mama, friend, and responsible global citizen.

Over nearly thirty years as a U.S. Diplomat and Development Cooperation practitioner, I directed staff and social impact programs across six continents and in roughly sixty countries. I am grateful for the honor, and proud of my work with teams and partners in multiple regions and communities to expand livelihood opportunities, advance education and health outcomes, and help create conditions that promote nonviolent growth, inclusive change, and better lives for ordinary people, especially girls and women.

Coming to Denmark and First Impressions

I first visited Copenhagen in the spring of 1998 to meet my husband’s family and was immediately struck by the wildflowers and easy access to nature. I hadn’t expected such color this far north. Spring remains my favorite season here.

In 2019, after retiring from the U.S. Foreign Service, I moved to Denmark with my Danish husband and family. I believe I’m still settling into a new rhythm after what felt like a lifetime of constant mobility, change, and new challenges. After decades of being the person called in to help, to manage, and to solve complex problems, I now find myself the newcomer – navigating a landscape where many firms overlook seasoned professionals in favor of younger candidates. It’s a short-sighted trend, especially at a time when experience, judgment, adaptability, and resilience are needed more than ever. I remain committed to learning and growing on this new path, and I know I have a great deal to offer the right organization and mission.

Achievements and Career Highlights

In 1983, I joined the U.S. Peace Corps as an Agricultural Specialist and high school science teacher in Liberia, West Africa. I was young, idealistic, and absolutely certain I could make a difference. And for a while, I believe I did. In addition to teaching and supporting local agricultural production, I secured grants to build a high school science lab and library, using local talent, supplies, and labor whenever possible to strengthen community ownership. As the project progressed, it felt like planting seeds for a new generation to dream, aspire, and realize possibilities far beyond that small rural village at the end of the long, bumpy red dirt road.

In November 1985, the sound of rapid gunfire and screams changed everything. One moment I was planning lessons; the next, I was fleeing the country amid a violent attempted coup d’état. I left behind students, neighbors, and a community I had grown very fond of – projects unfinished, lives disrupted, and far too many ended too soon.

That experience taught me what no textbook could: that privilege, peace, and stability include the rare luxury of assuming tomorrow will come and that life unfolds in a straight line. I carry that lesson with me still. Each region, country, and program where I’ve worked since then, I’ve been guided by some core questions: What happens to the people and communities when I leave? And how do we build something together that lasts?

In 2011, I returned to Liberia as an International Elections Observer and saw firsthand the unimaginable social, physical, and economic devastation of war. I also witnessed hope and promise in a post-war nation that had re-elected Africa’s first female President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.