Bart Pfankuch
South Dakota News Watch
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – As a former national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence and a woman who grew up in small-town South Dakota, Army Col. Andrea Thompson of Sioux Falls is uniquely positioned to serve on a new coalition that will put a Rushmore State focus on political and economic issues of global importance.
Thompson will be one of about 75 thought leaders statewide who will serve on the new South Dakota advisory committee of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC), a bipartisan national group that seeks to define and strengthen America's role in worldwide governmental, economic and diplomatic affairs.
The South Dakota state advisory committee of USGLC is the 33rd state chapter to advise the national group. It hopes to usher in new opportunities for the state and its leaders to expand knowledge and understanding of global affairs and the worldwide marketplace. The panel will also seek to provide South Dakota businesses and individuals with opportunities to expand into new international markets.
The new state chapter will launch during a global affairs conference in Sioux Falls on Wednesday, March 27. Speakers include U.S. Sen. John Thune, former South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard and Col. Thompson.
"This is really just another resource for our community leaders, our business leaders, our political leaders to gain insight on areas of the world that we might not now be familiar with," Thompson said.
Access to new opportunities
Thompson grew up in Pierre, attended the University of South Dakota and spent 28 years in the Army, serving tours as an intelligence officer in Iraq and Afghanistan. She then joined the U.S. State Department as national security adviser to the vice president and undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
Thompson retired from the Army in 2016 and returned to South Dakota in November 2023 to become CEO of the Dakota State University Applied Research Corp., now under construction in northwest Sioux Falls.
Thompson, who serves on the national board of USGLC, said the new state committee will bring together leaders in industry, the nonprofit sector, education, agriculture, politics and the faith-based community to focus on two major objectives.
"It allows us to educate and inform the U.S. and international communities about what South Dakota brings to the economy and it gives us access to senior leaders and decision-makers that we may not normally have access to," Thompson told News Watch in an interview.
The committee will be co-chaired by Daugaard and Jim Abbott, former president of the University of South Dakota.
The South Dakota committee will create new lines of communication with leaders in a wide range of fields from other states, in Washington and across the world, Thompson said.
"I find that almost all of our problems can be solved with communication," she said. "I've told our soldiers, my government peers and business leaders that we're better together when we share ideas and when we share the lessons learned by others."
'We bring America together'
USGLC CEO Liz Schrayer told News Watch that the breadth of leadership within the national organization and on state committees provides a forum for greater understanding of the United States' role on the global stage and in expanding economic opportunities for all Americans.
The Washington Post once referred to the USGLC as the "Strange Bedfellows Coalition," a moniker that Schrayer shares with pride.
"We bring together America," she said. "Leaders who believe that America needs to be engaged in the world and who support that idea through our diplomacy and our development understand that it matters to America's economic security and our values."
Schrayer said the time is right to launch an advisory committee in South Dakota, where 1 in 5 jobs is related to trade, $12 billion in agricultural products are exported each year, and nearly 1,000 in-state businesses export more than $2.5 billion in goods and services a year.
"What matters globally, matters locally," she said. "South Dakotans believe and see and live the ideal that South Dakota matters to the world and that the world matters to South Dakota."
Creating new economic pathways
The new advisory committee will enable South Dakota leaders from all walks of life and commerce to develop a stronger understanding of world events and how crises around the world affect life and business in the state, Schrayer said.
The state committee will create new pathways for South Dakota leaders to share the state's story of success with governmental and industry leaders in the U.S. and around the world, she said.
"There's so much that South Dakota has to be proud of," Schrayer said, noting the state's role in helping to feed the world and having strong leaders in Congress.
Luke Lindberg, CEO of South Dakota Trade, a statewide business development group launched in 2023, said the new committee will help the state play a greater role in the international marketplace and in advising national leaders on global affairs.
"What happens overseas does impact our state's producers and manufacturers, our national security and our way of life," said Lindberg, who will also serve on the March 27 panel. "It's an exciting time to see more momentum of South Dakotans being willing to step forward and say that this stuff matters."
Bipartisanship an important element
Lindberg said the bipartisan nature of the USGLC in Washington and within the South Dakota committee is important to the continued success of the organization. The apolitical nature of the committee will allow members to focus on the big picture of maintaining strong American presence in global affairs and advocating for a strong international affairs budget within federal government.
Conflicts and upheaval on the global political stage do have an effect on South Dakotans and the state economy, Lindberg said. As examples, he noted that the state agricultural industry is affected by the war in Ukraine or from Chinese aggression toward Taiwan, and that airmen and women stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base might be called on at anytime to engage in U.S. military interests abroad.
"Our farmers have the propensity to ramp up production and deliver necessary foods around the world," he said. "And that's a good opportunity for us to demonstrate American leadership and make an impact back here in the heartland."
— This article was produced by South Dakota News Watch, a non-profit journalism organization located online at sdnewswatch.org. Contact Bart Pfankuch at .
