Jonesboro, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — July 1, 2025 — Former U.S. Embassy deputy defense attaché Karin Gleisner spoke with the Jonesboro University Heights (JUH) Lions Club about her experiences living and working in U.S. Embassies overseas Tuesday morning, during its bi-weekly meeting at the Eggsellent Café.

A Jonesboro native and graduate of Jonesboro High School, Gleisner has degrees from Georgetown University and the University of Wisconsin and has served in four different embassies’ defense attaché offices (DAO) around the world, including Tanzania, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. Most of these deployments lasted two to four years, she said.

During her presentation, Gleisner talked about the logistics of living overseas, covering several topics from overcoming language barriers to religious impacts on cultures to hygiene and the lack of medical care in developing countries.

“A lot of people think it’s all fun and games when you get sent overseas, but it’s a different ball of wax when you have to do it. It’s also very different when you move to an embassy setting,” Gleisner said, noting some of the things she has to consider before each move, including necessities such as water conditions, food, transportation, shipping costs, etc.

When asked what her greatest satisfaction over the course of her career was, Gleisner said she felt she made a difference in a lot of individuals’ lives in terms of being a good representative of the United States.

“I do not presume to believe that I’ve had any real lasting impact on U.S. foreign policy, although there’s been some contributions to policy papers and stuff like that. But honestly, I feel proud about the fact that I think that various people in all the countries I’ve been to have a more positive impression of the United States and maybe are a little less likely to get radicalized,” she said.

Recently retired, Gleisner was an attaché for over 20 years. While the defense attaché service is mostly military, she said that there are civilians like herself who serve as deputy attachés to interface with the military. An attaché is an expert on a country’s diplomatic staff, assisting with educational exchanges, military exercises, and policy discussions.

For example, she said if a high-ranking U.S. general needs to visit another military, the DAO would take point; or if another country wanted to send some soldiers to the U.S. to train or study, the attaché would arrange it.

Gleisner is the daughter of JUH Lions Club public relations chair Charles Hartwig and Mary Hartwig.

Thanks to her father, she said, service has always been important to her. Also like her father, Gleisner said she spent many years in the Peace Corps, which is where she met her husband, Grant Glesner.

“We traveled through Africa together after we left the Peace Corps and then came back to the States,” she recalled. “I went to grad school, and we got married. Then, in 2004, we started in government service.”

She is currently visiting her parents before heading to yet another embassy in La Paz, Bolivia later this month with her husband, who works for the U.S. Department of State.

Gleisner said she was very excited when she asked to speak to the group.

“My dad has been a Lion my entire life and he’s always taught me about service, and I know that this is a very important club to him,” she said. “So, whenever we come back to visit, I try to come on a Tuesday if I can so I can come to Lions Club.”