In America's Service

Public Policy Alumnus Logs Miles Overseas 

by Carin Chapin 

From the small, rural community of South English, Iowa, to the vast countryside of Russia and more than fifty nations in between, School of Public Policy graduate John Machado has traveled the world serving his country. Machado, 38, works for the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, as a counter narcotics program officer for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

John Machado met Robin Williams when the actor visited the Ganci Air Base in Bishkek.

The allure of traveling came at an early age, Machado said. "My father was a truck driver-as a child, I waited patiently for him to get back and tell his stories," he recalled. There wasn't much to do in small-town Iowa, so I became one of those National Geographic kids who anxiously awaited the arrival of each month's issue."

After graduating high school, Machado took off to see the world, and in the process, witnessed some the most amazing events of recent history. He was in China immediately before and after the Tiananmen Square massacre, in Berlin when the Wall came down, and in South Africa when Nelson Mandela rose to power. "I have always enjoyed the feeling of being an American overseas," he said. "Like Kipling wrote, 'What knows he of England who only England knows?' I have learned much more about my own culture and identity through travel than anything else."

Of all of his assignments, Machado most enjoyed working in the former Soviet Union. My fascination with Russia and Russian culture began when I was on the Trans-Siberian Railway, traveling through Manchuria and on to Moscow-such a vast and wonderful land," he said.

Combining that fascination with the desire for a formal education, Machado attended the University of Tennessee and earned his bachelor's degree in Russian in 1993. He also participated in summer Russian-language programs at Harvard University and the Gornyii Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Shortly after returning from Gornyii, Machado and his wife, Nina, moved to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and settled into the domestic life of running a bed and breakfast. "The B&B was an amazing opportunity for us," he said. "It provided us with great pay and no housing costs, and the entire fall and winter off, so we could always travel freely."

During this time, Machado and his wife traveled in Africa, Asia, and the Far East and ended up in Australia. They returned to Martha's Vineyard, tired and poor, but elated about their experiences. Shortly thereafter, the Machados were given the opportunity to take over the bed and breakfast but declined. "I just couldn't commit to it," Machado said. "I still had the travel bug."

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Machado was offered a position as a journalist in Moscow working for the Moscow Journal. While there, the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow recruited Machado to work in the immigration unit. The highlight of his two years there was managing the international adoption unit, where he placed nearly seven thousand Russian orphans with American families.

He returned to the United States in late 1997 looking for a new challenge. "I was deciding between working in Washington, D.C., or going to graduate school," he said. "I surveyed various programs, and they basically broke down as MBA-type programs for business leaders or broadly theoretic programs for academics."

After much research, Machado chose Pepperdine's School of Public Policy, which, he said, "poses the 'how' questions that MBA programs do, but also the 'why' questions the theoretic programs do. ... After my two years at Pepperdine, I am more than equipped to know what questions need to be asked when policy decisions are being made."

But it was one particular experience that solidified Machado's view that Pepperdine-above and beyond the education-is indeed a special institution. During his first year, his one-yearold daughter, Hannah, fell and fractured her skull, needing emergency surgery. "The students and faculty of the School of Public Policy showed the greatest of character and support," he said. "For weeks, students took notes for me, cooked special dinners for my family, and came and prayed by my daughter's bedside. Of all the things I learned at Pepperdine, compassion and understanding for others in need was the greatest."

After graduating in 2000, Machado accepted a position as an intelligence analyst for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) in its Russia/Eurasia division.

In his current role as counter narcotics program officer at the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, Machado builds contacts within the Kyrgyz government and diplomatic communities and reports on foreign Kyrgyz relations. "The drug trafficking situation is terrible here," he said. "We have a southern border that's only 130 miles from Afghanistan, where the world's majority of heroin is processed."

According to U.S. intelligence, heroin is trafficked through Tajikistan, then through the Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan, and on to western consumer markets in Russia, Western Europe, and the United States. "Our task is to prevent that flow to the extent we can," he said.

In September, Machado is scheduled to return to his position with INR in Washington, D.C. "With each new position I assume, I start anew, a rookie again," he said. "And the moving can be difficult. My wife and I have two girls, now ages five and three, and a very spoiled cat."

But the bottom line for Machado is that he loves what he does. For him, it is the perfect blend of his passions and talents. "And in these precarious days when terrorism is at our door and our security is of the utmost concern, it is an honor to serve my country," he added.

Machado still subscribes to National Geographic and anxiously awaits the arrival of each issue, just as he did as a child. Though now, rather than dreaming of all the places he'd like to see, he finds great joy in flipping through the pages with his daughters, telling them the stories of all the places he has seen.