Overview

A native Utahn, Kael Weston served 10+ years in the U.S. State Department, including seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He and Marine leaders were responsible for rebuilding Fallujah’s infrastructure, facilitating the return of hundreds of thousands back into the city, establishing a new city council, and working with leaders in Ramadi and Baghdad. Kael wrote the book, The Mirror Test, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Military Times’ Best Book of the Year. He has taught in Utah, in Quantico, Virginia, at Marine Corps University, and at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Kael writes monthly for the Salt Lake Tribune and has contributed to NPR, New York Times, Washington Post, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Daily Beast. For his service in Fallujah, Iraq, the State Department awarded him the Secretary of State’s Medal for Heroism. Founder: Democrats Abroad, Iraq (“Donkeys in the Desert”).