Dennis Hays
Dennis K. Hays is a retired member of the US Senior Foreign Service and a former Ambassador to Suriname. Over the course of his career he served in the Caribbean, Africa and South America. He was a Presidential Advance Man for several years and was twice elected President of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA). He resigned from the position of Coordinator for Cuban Affairs (but not from the Foreign Service) over a policy change he could not support and was reassigned as Director for Mexico before being confirmed to serve in Suriname.
After leaving the Service, Amb. Hays has been the Washington Director for a major foreign policy association, worked with a nuclear technology company, promoted anti-corruption and police training and reform overseas and now provides political and economic risk analysis to the international oil industry.
He is one of three members of the Foreign Service Labor Relations Board, immediate past President of the Reston Citizens Association, Chairman of the Fairfax Library Advocates and a founding member of the Dean's Leadership Council of the University of Florida. He also works with the US military on psychological operations training and supports Large Scale Combat Operations exercises.
He received a BA degree in American Studies from the University of Florida, an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and is a graduate of the National War College.
While in the Service he received the Superior Honor Award four times along with the Christian Herter Award for Intellectual Courage and Creative Dissent. While undergoing testing to enter the Foreign Service, he served on the congressional staff of Congressman Charles E. Bennett, the Chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.