Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, will speak about her inspiring memoir, Lessons From the Edge. The pioneering diplomat who spent her career advancing democracy in the post-Soviet world, electrified the nation by speaking truth to power during the first impeachment of President Trump.

Marie Yovanovitch was at the height of her diplomatic career when it all came crashing down. In the middle of her third ambassadorship, she was targeted by a smear campaign and abruptly recalled from her post in Kyiv, Ukraine. In the months that followed, she endured personal tragedy while simultaneously being pulled into the blinding lights of the first impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump. 

Through it all, Yovanovitch tirelessly advocated for the Ukrainian people, while advancing U.S. interests and staying true to herself. When she made the courageous decision to participate in the impeachment inquiry—over the objections of the Trump administration—she earned the nation’s respect, and her dignified response to the president’s attacks won our hearts. She has reclaimed her own narrative, first with her lauded congressional testimony, and now with this powerful memoir: the dramatic saga of one woman’s role at the vanguard of American foreign policy during a time of upheaval, for herself and for our country.

A graduate of Princeton University with a master’s degree from the National Defense University, Ambassador Yovanovitch received numerous Presidential and State Department awards, including the Secretary’s Diplomacy in Human Rights Award.

Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Scheppele's work focuses on the intersection of constitutional and international law, particularly in constitutional systems under stress.