Shaun Casey, head of the U.S. Department of State's new Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, will give a public talk at 2:00 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7 at Emory University titled "Exploring Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy: Launching the State Department's Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives."

Casey's talk will be held in Room 206 of White Hall 302 Dowman Drive on the Emory campus. Admission is free. Parking is available at Peavine Visitor Parking Lot, 27 Eagle Row. His talk, originally scheduled in the fall of 2013, was postponed due to the government shutdown.

Appointed in August 2013 by Secretary of State John Kerry, Casey is overseeing State Department engagement with faith-based communities and is working in conjunction with bureaus and posts to reach out to those communities to advance the department's diplomacy and development objectives.

The new office is charged with working closely with faith communities to ensure that their voices are heard in the foreign policy process. It also is collaborating with other government officials and offices focused on religious issues, including the Office of International Religious Freedom.

Casey is currently on leave of absence from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, where he is professor of Christian ethics and director of the National Capital Semester for Seminarians. He has written on the ethics of the war in Iraq as well as the role of religion in American presidential politics, and is the author of the 2009 book, "The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960."

Casey's talk is sponsored by the Graduate Division of Religion, with the Laney Graduate School, Candler School of Theology and the Department of Religion.