Welcome to Louis O'Neill

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he was launching a program in The White House which would winnow the best and brightest of America's young professionals from their everyday careers, and invite them to spend one year working inside The White House. President Johnson declared that "a genuinely free society cannot be a spectator society," and so established The White House Fellowship Program which continues to this day. The purpose of the program has remained the same: to seek out and groom young Americans with exemplary achievements and talents in preparation for them to become future statesmen of America.

In 2004, Louis F. O'Neill was selected to be one of the elite few mentored through The White House Fellowship Program. O'Neill fit all the criteria demanded of candidates seriously considered in this pool of possible future leaders of America. He had graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Literature and Slavic Languages. He had continued his education at Stanford and earned a Master's degree in Russian and in Eastern European Studies. He had even spent a year at the University of Moscow as a Presidential Fulbright Scholar and returned to the U.S. to attend Harvard Law and graduate with honors.

Despite Louis O'Neill's strong resume, he still faced intense competition for a fellowship position. According to the program's website, there are often thousands of applicants for the 11-19 positions open in a given year. From this pool, approximately 100 promising applicants are pulled for interviews with various local leaders and former Fellows across the country. When 30 finalists have been selected, they must then go through another round of competition at the national level, along with the intensive background checks performed on anyone who will be working at the highest levels of the federal government.

What set Louis O'Neill apart, what sets apart any White House Fellow, really, was his commitment to better the world around him. His dedication to the pubic good as a criminal prosecutor, his pro bono work and his key experiences reforming the Russian legal system were important factors in his selection. Louis O'Neill was assigned to the Department of State where he worked as a Special Assistant to Secretary of State Colin Powell. There, he first came into contact with The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He served as U.S. expert to the OSCE Minsk Group's Fact Finding Mission to the Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan Surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Ultimately, Louis O'Neill would be appointed OSCE Ambassador and Head of Mission to Moldova.

PRESS RELEASES

CHISINAU, 24 September 2007

OSCE Mission supports Moldova to improve safe storage of stockpile ammunition, small arms

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D.A. - NEW YORK COUNTY

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