The Office of Global Affairs is pleased to feature Christopher Brathwaite for our June 2025 edition of the Global Visionaries series. The Global Visionaries series highlights the University of Washington’s global impact by featuring innovative, globally-engaged faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
Christopher Brathwaite graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance this month with a Master of Public Administration. Christopher was recognized as a 2025 recipient of the Husky 100. He is dedicated to the service of others and advancing meaningful change. Christopher is looking forward to a career where he can help strengthen Barbados’ domestic policy development and international partnerships in global affairs.
Originally from Barbados, Christopher graduated with a BSc in International Relations & Tourism Management from The University of the West Indies, Mona. He was the recipient of the 2023 Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship. His previous experience includes serving as a Foreign Policy and Diplomacy Service Intern with Global Affairs Canada, a Foreign Service Intern with the Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, a Secretary to the Ambassador with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and as a Graduate Attaché, Foreign Policy with the Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.
Barbados, and the West Indies by extension, is extremely community-oriented. Growing up there, I did not just hear the phrase “it takes a village”, I lived it. Barbados taught me firsthand about the power in investing in people, not their successes or material possessions, but in their humanity. There is something innately beautiful about total strangers helping you in a crisis or simply inviting you into their home for a meal, even if they didn’t expect you.
Barbados also taught me to enjoy the slower, calmer sides of life that often go unseen as a rushed graduate student. The culture back home prides itself on appreciating the little things, so when I found myself caught up in the frustration and rush of grad school, I grounded myself in the little things around me on UW’s campus – the sunsets, the breeze, and the way that bodies of water ripple, shimmer, and flow.
Barbados shaped who I am today by encouraging me to pursue a career in the service of others.
In seeing how my countrymen have cared for each other, even when they didn’t have much to give, I have been inspired to serve and help better life for others. It also grounded me, allowing me to appreciate the little magic in everyday life.
It was surreal. The Ambassador at the time was a career diplomat who had decades of experience in global affairs from the perspective of Japan. I was thoroughly immersed in Japan’s local and regional foreign agenda and strategies. This gave valuable insight into how foreign nations interact with my home country of Barbados. I believe that this will eventually bolster a career in foreign affairs, since I have professional experience in advancing mutually beneficial interests for Barbados and its allies, from both an internal and external perspective.
Being a Fulbright Scholar is one of the most consequential achievements of my life. The scholarship allowed me to move to a new country, meet all sorts of wonderful people, and pursue a debt-free education at one of the finest graduate schools in the world. I am eternally grateful to the Fulbright Commission for their continued support towards international exchanges and experiences.
Because of Fulbright, I saw snow for the first time. I hiked through the most beautiful trails. I tried foods that I never had before. I visited sights in and around not only Seattle, but the country. And I made wonderful friends whom I otherwise never would have met.
The Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade is the government department which oversees diplomatic and economic relations with foreign nations. I have been incredibly privileged to have built practical experience there in two internships – one during undergrad in Bridgetown, Barbados and one during grad school in Washington, D.C. In my time there, I learned basic and advanced diplomacy best practices, resolution drafting, dossier drafting, speechwriting, multi-party negotiation, cooperative dialogue, time management, and resilience.
I built community in BGSA and EISA by committing myself to the spaces I wished to see thrive. I realized that community cannot exist without those committed to its survival. As a Black international student, I sought spaces outside of the rigidity of a classroom, where folks looked like me, understood my perspectives through our shared experiences. So, I canvased, I spoke with staff, gauged interest among peers and put it all into motion to secure the communities I wanted to build. It required some commitment outside of regular classes and other obligations to pull off, but I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have contributed to something bigger than myself, for the enjoyment of others.
I look forward to helping to strategically advance the interests of Barbados, her allies, and those of other small island developing states on the global stage.
With threats like climate change and socioeconomic uncertainty, small island developing states are positioned to be adversely affected while contributing negligibly to these occurrences. I hope to platform their concerns in international forums in order to advocate for more robust protections and considerations.