As a highly regarded member council affiliated with the U.S. Department of State’s International Leadership Program (IVLP), Global Ties Nebraska welcomes and connects emerging leaders from countries across the world with the Nebraska community members through home visits, governance, education, and cultural visits.
The Mayor’s Committee for International Friendship (MCIF) began in April 1966 when Mayor Dean Peterson wanted to establish a committee that welcomed international leaders through a glimpse of heartland hospitality. In 1995, the Lincoln Council for International Visitors (LCIV) was established as the 501(c)3 component to MCIF in order to receive federal grant funding to implement the International Visitor Leadership Program. In 2025, our organization entered its newest chapter, rebranding to Global Ties Nebraska and reflecting itself as a local affiliate of Global Ties U.S. The mission of Global Ties Nebraska is to promote global understanding through citizen diplomacy in Lincoln, Nebraska, and we're proud to continue this work for almost 60 years.
More About the International Visitor Leadership Programs
Global Ties Nebraska works with the U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) to facilitate interactions between Citizen Diplomats in the United States and selected global leaders from various fields and endeavors during their professional programming visits to Nebraska.
The goal of the IVLP program is to build mutual understanding between the U.S. and other nations through short-term visits to the U.S. Nationally, IVLP annually hosts about 5,000 international visitors, which brings a total of more than 200,000 International Visitors to the U.S. Participants of IVLP include over 335 current or former heads of state (presidents and prime ministers), and the notable international visitors include U.K. Prime Ministers Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, French Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy, François Fillon, and Dutch Prime Ministers Jan Peter Balkenende and Willem Kok.
