Norton, Massachusetts and Washington, DC Wheaton College, and Consultant on Public Policy and Public Affairs

1981-1985

In 1980, Perdita Huston was awarded an honorary doctorate from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.  Lecturing on international relations and serving as an advisor to foreign students, Huston held the post of Scholar-in-Residence at Wheaton from 1981 to 1983.
In 1981, Huston addressed the "Planet Without a Plan?" Conference for Youth on Population and Development held at Lincoln Cathedral by the organization Population Concern of London, England.

In 1982, while at Wheaton College, and a member of the board of Amnesty International, Huston traveled with a group of twelve women to Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and the West Bank. The trip was sponsored by the Middle East Council of Churches and the Palestine Human Rights Campaign. This trip served as a study tour to understand the conflicts in the region -- their roots and possibilities for a just resolution.

From 1983 to 1985, Huston was busy consulting with international and national clients in the public and private sectors on public policy and public affairs. The organizations with which she worked include: 

The Jordan Society, organized to improve US-Arab relations, where she gave a paper at a conference organized by the Ministry of Labor under Queen Noor al Hussein; 
Committee on African Development Strategies, a joint project of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Overseas Development Council, where she served as media consultant for the publication of "Compact for African Development";

InterAction Council, a group of 30 former heads of government that sought to influence international decision-making through position papers and high-level contacts; 

Sandra Nichols Productions, LTD., producer of the documentary film African Recovery, at the request of the United Nations Department of Public Information, where Huston served as field producer, on-site researcher, interviewer and scriptwriter in Niger and Cameroon;

Overseas Education Fund International, where she prepared a report of the National Consultative Committee for the UN Conference on the Women's Decade, US Information Agency;

Refugee Policy Group, where she researched potential income-producing activities available to or needed by women refugees in Asia, Africa, Central America and the Near East and developed and designed proposals;

UNICEF, where she led a public media campaign for the World Children's Report;

UN Voluntary Fund for Women, where she reviewed and reported on the Fund's projects in Columbia and Cameroon.