Government and Public Service

Valerie Plame joined the CIA when she was just 21. She worked undercover and went on to manage other agency operatives attempting to contain nuclear proliferation in rogue states around the world. But she was tested when top George W. Bush Administration officials outed her, effectively ending her career and putting her life and the lives of her husband and two small children at risk.

Though he never finished high school, Story Musgrave went on to earn seven graduate degrees, including a medical degree. He served as a U. S. Marine pilot, a trauma surgeon, and a scientist-astronaut for NASA. He made six space flights and now operates a palm farm in Florida and works as a conceptual artist and speaker.

The drinking never felt like a problem until it was. Friday night would roll around and she’d be out with her friends and one drink would lead to another and an inevitable mistake and a morning of regret. It was the life she knew, the culture she’d grown up in, and now Cheryl Cromwell was facing the reality of alcohol’s grip on her life.

Writing letters to family should be a casual and relaxing experience, but, for Madina Boyd, reaching out to her mother involved delicately crafting messages that had to get through screening by the KGB, the Soviet Union’s top security agency.

Read Madina’s story.