Solon native Marti Flacks remembers sitting at her kitchen table as a child with a large world map spread out by her parents. She would position herself at the bottom of South America and stare at the vastness and complexity of the countries.

“My parents and grandparents didn’t work in international affairs, but they always had the newspaper out and the news on,” Flacks told the Cleveland Jewish News. “They were also very involved in Israel issues. When I was 13 or 14, my aunt and uncle gave me a book by Jimmy Carter for teenagers called ‘Talking Peace.’ It was all about his post-presidency work on conflict resolution and global health. That really inspired me for what I wanted to do for a career.”

It helped kick off a 25-plus year foreign policy career for Flacks, who in August started

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