Ben Ousley Naseman ’96 returned to Carolina in 2024 after a career as a U.S. diplomat that took him around the globe.
Story by Nicole Juzaitis of UNC Global Affairs, published via global.unc.edu on March 26, 2026.
When Ben Ousley Naseman ’96 first arrived at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1992, he imagined a future as an international correspondent, specifically a photographer.
Instead, his curiosity about the world, combined with the academic opportunities and global experiences he found at Carolina, set him on a different path: a 26-year career as an American diplomat. Now, he is the director of global programs at the Morehead-Cain Foundation.
Ben took the inaugural class of global fellows and four scholars to Washington, D.C., and New York City over spring break this year. (Photo by Leon Godwin)
“I came from western North Carolina, from Cleveland County,” he said. “Carolina showed me that you can come from a small town and be prepared to operate on a global stage.”
As an undergraduate and Morehead‑Cain Scholar, Ben studied journalism and international studies, now global studies. Morehead-Cain’s four-part Summer Enrichment Program includes outdoor leadership, civic engagement, global exploration, and early professional experience.
Across these summers, he practiced wilderness leadership through NOLS in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains; community-facing public service with the Tucson Police Department; conservation policy work at The Conservation Fund in Washington, D.C.; and cross-cultural collaboration through a documentary photography project with University of Havana students and staff in Cuba. These experiences, along with the curiosity and communication skills he developed through his studies, helped Ben build the skill set he would rely on as a diplomat.
“It all tied together: my majors, the different experiences I had as a scholar. It was a really nice package by the time I was ready to leave Carolina,” he said. “You can take what you get here and move it with you around the world.”
A career in diplomacy
In his final year at Carolina, Ben took the Foreign Service Officer Test.
“I was a Foreign Service Officer for twenty-six years, mostly as a consular officer. Throughout it all, I felt like I got to give back a lot,” he said. “I even had the opportunity to be an instructor at the Foreign Service Institute, teaching officers getting ready to go out on their first assignment.”
Assignments took him to Mexico, Colombia, Poland, India, Egypt, Greece, and Afghanistan. Throughout, he often found himself drawing on his Carolina education.
Emmaline Phillips ’29, Paige Greene ’29, Cassie Miller ’29, and Naila Moloo ’29 (left to right) visited Ben (second from the right) in Athens during their International Gap Year and shared ice cream from a favorite spot just outside the U.S. Embassy, where he worked at the time.
“Foreign Service Officers are really the first recorders of history,” he said. “You’re meeting people, gathering information, understanding events as they happen, and then reporting back to Washington—skills I first learned at Carolina.”
In his final two weeks at the State Department, Ben was already preparing to return to Chapel Hill to join the Morehead-Cain Foundation. Around this time, a group of scholars on the Program’s International Gap Year, which enables scholars to spend a year abroad before beginning at Carolina, tracked him down through the alumni network and reached out to meet him in Athens. He gave them a tour of the consular section and shared some of what he had learned throughout his career.
“Meeting him there in Athens was surreal. Suddenly I was talking to someone who’d actually done the work I wanted to do and could show me how to get there myself,” said Paige Greene ’29, one of the scholars in Athens that day. “And I just thought—if everyone [at Morehead-Cain] is this kind, I’m set.”
Building the Morehead-Cain Global Fellows program
In October 2024, Ben returned to Carolina to help launch and lead the Morehead-Cain Global Fellows program, an initiative designed to bring exceptional undergraduate students from around the world to study at UNC–Chapel Hill for one year.
The program reflects the Program’s mission to identify, invest in, and empower a community of dynamic, purpose-driven leaders around the world.
“The world is only going to become more connected,” Ben said. “Giving Carolina students the chance to learn alongside students from other countries creates conversations that expand everyone’s perspective.”
The inaugural class of global fellows arrived in fall 2025, representing Azerbaijan, Brazil, India, Nigeria, and Turkey. Each global fellow was nominated by a university or organization in their home country and selected through a rigorous international application process. Ben has become both a mentor and a guide to the group, from the application process throughout their time in the United States.
Global fellows visited Google’s campus in Mountain View, California, as part of the program’s fall 2025 trip to San Francisco. (Photo by Emma Coye ’26)
“Ben is someone we go to for anything,” said global fellow Disha Parasu ’26 of Vellore Institute of Technology-Chennai in India. “You can talk to him about things he understands. He’s been there and experienced it, too.”
As part of the program, the global fellows traveled with Ben to places like western North Carolina, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York City. These trips are designed to give the scholars a broader understanding of North Carolina and the United States, including their complexity and influence, so the global fellows better understand this country when they return home.
“Ben’s experience and leadership have been central to bringing the Global Fellows program to life in a moment of disruption,” Morehead-Cain President Chris Bradford said. “He is a tremendous representative of the United States, UNC–Chapel Hill, and Morehead-Cain in his conversations with stakeholders across the world. And he brings an infectious optimism that touches everyone he engages with each day.”
The program will welcome a new class in the fall, growing its partner universities to include two new institutions in Malaysia.
Expanding Carolina’s global connections
In addition to his work with the global fellows, Ben advises Carolina students preparing for international experiences and mentors those interested in diplomacy and public service. His experience serving on selection committees for international programs, such as Fulbright, gives him a clear sense of what competitive opportunities require, and how students can position themselves for success.
“He’s really the person who brings a global perspective,” Elias Guedira ’26 said. “Because he’s lived abroad for so long and understands the United State’s impact firsthand, hearing about his experiences makes international paths feel much more real.”
Returning to Chapel Hill has also allowed him to reconnect with the interests that first shaped his own path. This year, he served as a judge for the Carolina Global Photography Competition, led by UNC Global Affairs, which invites students, faculty, staff, and alumni to submit photos that capture unique global experiences and perspectives.
“Ben has a remarkable ability to connect people across differences—cultures, disciplines, and educational systems—in ways that help build meaningful partnerships and strengthen the community we are trying to create,” said Melanie Godinez‑Cedillo ’22, assistant director of recruitment and selection at Morehead‑Cain. “I’ve been genuinely grateful for the experience, support, and care he brings to this work.”
Through the Global Fellows program and the expanding network of international partnerships across campus, Ben hopes to continue strengthening those connections.
“UNC–Chapel Hill is a flagship public university. It can take students from anywhere and prepare them to engage with the world,” he said. “The more we can bring the world to Carolina, and Carolina to the world, the stronger those relationships will be.”
