Experience & results
Selected collaborative results from the professional experience that informs GEPI’s program design and delivery.
Experience behind GEPI
Before GEPI’s formation, President Omar A. Andrews spent nearly eight years supporting the Public Diplomacy Section at U.S. Embassy Santiago. He helped plan, coordinate, and deliver work across education, culture, strategic communications, grants, and the year-long U.S.–Chile bicentennial campaign.
The campaign connected education fairs, academic dialogue, public art, performing arts, concerts, festivals, hip-hop diplomacy, sporting events, and bilateral storytelling. These were collaborative Embassy and partner achievements—not prior GEPI institutional awards.
Three regional fairs connected high-school students with American Spaces and local education and science partners. Seventy-five percent reported new learning about the United States and interest in English, exchanges, or U.S. study.
Branded games, giveaways, social calls-to-action, influencers, and visual installations appeared at concerts and festivals including Backstreet Boys, Imagine Dragons, and Lollapalooza. Year-end results included 10,000 direct engagements, 500,000 social-media reach, and 7,000 new followers.
The 9.6-by-3-meter mosaic at Universidad de Chile station brings together the bald eagle and Andean condor above a landscape inspired by Yosemite and Torres del Paine, celebrating nature and two centuries of bilateral friendship.
A two-day conference at Universidad de Chile and Universidad Católica connected students and scholars—more than half from outside Santiago—around climate, economics, inclusion, agriculture, energy, astronomy, and artificial intelligence.
More Bicentennial activities
Selected initiatives show how cultural diplomacy, education, communications, and institutional partnerships were combined to reach distinct audiences.
Two public performances in central Santiago drew approximately 10,000 people. Workshops engaged more than 100 young performers and vulnerable youth, while Chilean media coverage reached an estimated audience of more than one million.
Workshops, performances, entrepreneurship, and conflict-transformation programming connected U.S. artists with more than 2,000 young Chileans and emerging voices.
An interactive stand engaged more than 3,000 runners, produced 650 participant videos through a 360° experience, and generated approximately 325,000 digital impressions.
Santiago Marathon image: Sebastián Rojas / CC BY-SA 3.0
The commemorative coffee-table book Socios para un futuro mejor documented two centuries of bilateral ties and created a lasting resource for diplomacy, outreach, and institutional engagement.
Public-diplomacy support connected Team USA, health, inclusion, youth engagement, and senior-level bilateral engagement during one of the region’s most visible sporting events.
What we learned to deliver
GEPI applies these lessons to new programs with clear roles, disciplined administration, accessible communications, and measurable follow-through.
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