Mudd-Krijgelmans was born and raised in Louisville, KY during the last days of racial segregation and in the midst of the civil rights movement. Being educated in Catholic schools, she was challenged to learn outside the narrow confines of the community she lived in.
Judith attended Ursuline Academy before graduating at Morgan State in Baltimore, secured a summer internship at the Peace Corps headquarters in Washington D.C. and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study and teach in India. After obtaining a Master’s degree from American University, Judith worked as a speech writer for Harlem black Republican lawyer Gloria E.A. Toote, then assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. From here she achieved her dream of joining the Foreign Service and worked in public diplomacy in New Delhi, Mumbai, Dhaka, Taipei, Hong Kong, Brussels, Libreville, Bujumbura and Brazzaville.
In her memoir, Flowers for Brother Mudd: One Woman’s Path from Jim Crow to Career Diplomat, Judith explores the paradox of an African American whom craved a wider future. She will discuss her humble, yet happy beginnings, globe-trotting career and subsequent memoir with Sacred Heart Schools.