Of course you alreay know experience is education. It depends on what capacity they intend Angelina to fulfill while sitting on this council. The things she has experienced and seen in third world countries cannot be taught in books. The visceral feeling you get knowing right or wrong also cannot be taught. Her first hand knowledge of foriegn issues may be helpful as she has spent substantial amounts of time among the "common" people. Now if they want her on the council to be a grant writer or a mediator, yes, a little schooling would be essential.

i've got to say- the longer i'm in academics, the more i believe in experiential training. i seriously doubt there is anything one could learn out of book that would be more helpful than dealing with common issues on the job. not to mention- angelina being on the council for publicity is probably worth more (in terms of raising awareness of its various causes) than pretty much anyone else. dunno if that's sad or not- probably depends on how you feel about celebrity culture generally...

Angelina DID go to NYU for a while before dropping out...