MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: DLE LEGACY ALUM NICK DWYER COMPLETES DIPLOMATIC ROLE IN A LOCATION THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING

By Sarah Marques, DLE Communications Intern, Senior at Marist College

Nick Dwyer is a man with big aspirations and a DLE legacy that few can match. 

A seasoned adventurist who has traveled to dozens of countries and speaks three languages, Nick just completed a two-year assignment with the U.S. Foreign Service in a place where geopolitical tensions are increasingly grabbing global headlines–Taiwan. 

The career path that brought Nick to Taiwan is impressive in both scope and diversity. As a college undergraduate, he earned selection to the first DLE cohort in 2008, when the program was conducted in partnership with Syracuse University (the alma mater of DLE Founder Linda Dulye). 

By leveraging the power of the DLE’s professional network, immersive seminars, and career coaching services, Nick received a job offer from DRS Technologies in the Washington, D.C. area shortly after graduation and began working as a marketing specialist in the defense industry. He then leveraged his government contracting experience to take on business development roles at Chemonics International, a major global development contractor.

His next step was to return to his hometown of Seattle to earn an MBA at the University of Washington, which helped propel him into the consulting industry at a boutique firm called 2A Consulting, where he led marketing projects for Microsoft and Amazon. Along the way, he got married and became a father.

As his personal life changed dramatically, so did his career aspirations. “While pursuing careers in the private sector in Seattle, I was also going through the long and tedious process to potentially become a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State,” Nick recalls, noting that he and his wife share a passion for international affairs and wanted opportunities to live abroad and do meaningful and impactful work. After a 20-month recruitment process full of exams, interviews, and background checks, Nick became a Foreign Service Officer in April 2021. 

After a year of onboarding and job training, in 2022 Nick became an economic officer at the American Institute in Taiwan, the United States’ de facto embassy for managing its unofficial relations with Taiwan. “Taiwan is a very interesting place to do diplomatic work because it has an ambiguous political status. The People’s Republic of China considers it a renegade province, however in practice it’s a self-governing and independent democracy,” Nick explains. 

Nick’s passion for global economics and international travel is both intense and immense. “Being a diplomat in Taiwan over the last two years has been fascinating, and I’m very grateful to the incredible people of Taiwan. I’m biased, but I now fully understand this is one of the most interesting careers one can pursue,” he notes.

That passion is equally shared by his wife, Hilary, who joined the U.S. Foreign Service three months before Nick. The two have learned to triumph time and distance in keeping their relationship vibrant–in their marriage and parenting of sons Conrad and Louis, ages 4 and 2. “Hilary received her first assignment in Malaysia right after I joined the Foreign Service. We made the collective decision to have Conrad stay with her, and then Hilary gave birth to Louis in Taiwan so that we could spend more time together,” he reflects.

The family affair of being diplomats may sound complicated, but Nick assures their mutual understanding of the job and the lifestyle helps make it work. “Unlike other families in the Foreign Service, we’re not in a position where there’s a lead spouse and trailing spouse. We both share the lead.”

Nick and Hilary will be packing their bags together. They reached their ultimate goal of getting their second assignment at the same place–Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, which is right on the U.S. border. Nick will serve as a consular officer at U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juárez, where he will provide services to American citizens, combat fraud, and adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas. “This job will be an interesting change of pace from my economic focus and will allow me to touch people’s lives in important ways,” Nick affirms.

Nick reflects with gratitude on his DLE ties and experience. “The DLE is about bringing practical skills and passion to people who want to succeed. There was nothing quite like this at college, and I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to meet Linda and be a part of the community.”

He adds, “To be around people who have lots of passion and an ability to get things done while combining that with a real care for others is huge. The DLE gave me a sense of what the private sector was really like, what companies cared about, and how to communicate my skills to them in an effective way.”