The Public Diplomacy Council
Advancing America's dialogue with the world
Member Biographies N-Z
Eugene A. Nojek
Mr. Novak is a retired Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Information Agency and served with the Voice of America.
Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Joseph Nye is the Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations and former Dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, did postgraduate work at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and earned a PhD in political science from Harvard. He has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology. He chaired the National Security Council Group on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In recognition of his service, he received the highest Department of State commendation, the Distinguished Honor Award. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Academy of Diplomacy, Mr. Nye has also been a Senior Fellow of the Aspen Institute, Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission. He has served as a director of the Institute for East-West Security Studies, a director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a member of the advisory committee of the Institute of International Economics, and the American representative on the United Nations Advisory Committee on Disarmament Affairs. He has been a trustee of Wells College and Radcliff College. A member of the editorial boards of Foreign Policy and International Security magazines, he is the author of numerous books and more than a hundred and fifty articles in professional journals. In 2004, he published Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, Understanding International Conflict (5th edition), and The Power Game: A Washington Novel. His other books include: Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power (1990), Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2002), and The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone (2002).
Donna M. Oglesby
Currently, Diplomat in Residence at Eckerd College, where she teaches courses on international relations and American foreign policy, Donna Oglesby has over twenty-five years experience in cultural and public diplomacy in representation of the United States. She served abroad in American embassies in numerous countries around the world including Austria, Brazil and Thailand. And, she held various senior positions in Washington culminating in service as Counselor of the Agency, the ranking career position in the United States Information Agency (USIA) from 1993-96. In addition to being faculty at Eckerd College, Professor Oglesby is a member of ASPEC (Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd College), a member of the Tampa Bay Committee on Foreign Affairs, and a member of the Public Diplomacy Council affiliated with George Washington University. Articles by Donna Oglesby on cultural and public diplomacy have been published by the United States Institute of Peace and the Foreign Service Journal. Educated in the United States and abroad, Professor Oglesby earned her BA from Washington College and a Masters in International Affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. She is the recipient of numerous awards including: the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange Award for Outstanding Service; USIA Distinguished Honor Award; the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a Presidential Honor Award.
Victor B. Olason
Born in Seattle and a graduate of the University of Washington, Olason joined the United States Information Agency in 1959 after a six-year career as a reporter and editor at The Seattle Times. He served in three Latin American posts, Santiago, Lima and Guatemala City, was press attaché in Bonn and headed USIS posts in Reykjavik, Cairo, at USNATO in Brussels and in Rome. Among his Washington assignments were directorships of the agency’s Latin American area office, its press and publications service and its European area office. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1995 with the rank of career minister. He is proficient in Spanish and German and has a working knowledge of French and Italian.
Dell Pendergrast
Dell Pendergrast was most recently the director of the George J. Mitchell Scholarships for Americans studying in Ireland and Northern Ireland. He entered the Foreign Service in 1965 and served 32 years with the U.S. Information Agency. During his last assignment he was the senior career officer in USIA responsible for all international cultural and educational exchange programs worldwide. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and Boston University.
Patti McGill Peterson
Dr. Peterson is a Vice President of the Institute of International education and the Executive Director of the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars which manages a portion of the Fulbright Academic Program under contract form the U.S. Department of state. Additional information may be found on the IIE website.
Adam Clayton Powell, III
Board Member
Anthony Quainton is currently Distinguished Diplomat in Residence at American University and serves as a member of the Academy and of the Council on Foreign Relations. Before assuming these positions he was president and CEO of the National Policy Association, a Washington research and policy group committed to the promotion of business-labor dialogue. He served for 38 years in the Foreign Service of the United States with posts on every continent. He was Ambassador in Peru, Nicaragua, Kuwait and the Central African Republic. He held senior positions in the Department of State including Coordinator for Counter-terrorism, Deputy Inspector General, Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security, and Director General of the Foreign Service. He was educated at Princeton and Oxford Universities. He speaks French and Spanish.
Walter R. Roberts
Emeritus Board Member
Walter R. Roberts is a foreign policy consultant and a former Foreign Service officer who began his government career with the Voice of America and retired as Associate Director of the U.S. Information Agency, then USIA's top career position. He was appointed by President George H.W. Bush and reappointed by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. He taught public diplomacy at George Washington University and is the author of Tito, Mihailovic and the Allies, 1941-1945 and of numerous articles on various aspects of foreign policy in professional publications. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs and served on the board of George Washington University's Public Diplomacy Institute.
Dorothy Robins-Mowry
Emerita Board Member
Dorothy Robins-Mowry, with a Ph.D. in International Relations, is a Phi Beta Kappa lecturer at American universities on Asian affairs, Japanese Women, and International Communication. A former senior Foreign Service Officer with the United States Information Agency, she served in Japan and Iran with extensive temporary duty in South Korea, Southeast Asia, and India. In the U.S., she directed programs for overseas posts on U.S. political and social processes and served as policy officer for North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Author of a series of books and pamphlets on Japan, Asia, and the United Nations, she also worked with a number of think tanks including the Aspen Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Russell C. Rochte
Russell C. Rochte, Jr. is the faculty member for Information Operations at the National Defense Intelligence College, where he has authored and offered courses on Information Operations; Intelligence, Propaganda, and Influence; basic Computer Network Operations; and The Advanced Information Operations Seminar (focusing on Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication) since joining the College in 2005. He lectures several times yearly at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany on topics in Strategic Information Operations. He is also a guest lecturer at the National Defense University, and is a frequently-requested speaker at a variety of other information operations-related courses and events both in CONUS and abroad.
A retired Army lieutenant colonel with over 25 yearís active commissioned service, Mr. Rochte also help positions as the Chief of the US Armyís Proponency for Information Operations, and as Professor of Systems Management at the Information Resources Management College of the National Defense University.
Mr. Rochte holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Troy State University, and has completed additional post-graduate work in information assurance. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and holds a General Class radio license from the US Federal Communication Commission.
Willing to make presentations on:
Retired FSO Richard F. Ross possesses 28 years of pubic diplomacy experience in seven countries, doing both information and cultural work with USIA. His last career position was as Public Affairs Officer in Morocco. ? ?
Ross has traveled extensively in Asia and the Middle East, and lived in Beirut, Amman, Jerusalem, Calcutta, Colombo, Kabul, Rabat, San'a, and Damascus. He spent five years in France, first as a cultural attaché, and later as the Public Affairs Advisor with the U.S. Delegation to UNESCO. His last assignment was Afghanistan Policy Advisor for USIA.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ross attended Vanderbilt and the University of Florida. While in Gainesville he and others founded The Blue Horse, a movement devoted principally to poetry. Ross held both enlisted and commissioned ranks of the U.S. Army; and after military service was a newspaper writer at the Ft. Lauderdale News. Since retiring from USIA, Ross has done stints as a language school Director, and English instructor for the National Parliament of Yemen. Most recently, he was a contract staffer in the Political Section of U.S. Embassy, Colombo.
Ross has chaired and directed Fulbright and other bi-national programs in Morocco, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. While in Colombo, he was an invited speaker at the last Bandaranaike International Conference, addressing issues of the U.S. in South Asia.
Richard Ross resides in downtown Washington, DC where he has been a participant and docent with the Historical Society of the District of Columbia. He has also long been a board member of the “Fondation des Etats Unis” in Paris.
William Rugh
Board Member
William Rugh, who holds a PhD in political science, is the author of "Arab Mass Media" and many articles on Middle Eastern subjects. He was a U.S. Foreign Service officer for 30 years, and during that time he served at embassies in six Arab countries, including as American Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (1992-95) and Ambassador to Yemen (1984-87). During his career he held several public diplomacy positions, including Area Director for Near East and South Asia (1989-92), and PAO in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Between 1995 and 2003 he was President of AMIDEAST, an American non-profit organization.
McKinney H. Russell
McKinney Russell, a retired Foreign Service officer, is a consultant on US exchanges and training programs overseas. In his final Foreign Service post as Counselor of the US Information Agency, that organization's senior career position, he set up the first American cultural centers in the newly independent states during the early 1990s. As the US Embassy's Minister Counselor for Public Affairs, he headed US information, cultural, and exchange programs in the USSR, Germany, Brazil, Spain, and China. His career also included directing the television and film service of USIA and Voice of America broadcasts to the Soviet Union. He achieved the rank of Career Minister in the Foreign Service. He serves on the board of directors of George Washington University's Public Diplomacy Institute and is the immediate past president of the Public Diplomacy Council.
Juliet Antunes Sablosky
Juliet Antunes Sablosky is Adjunct Professor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown University, where she teaches courses in European politics and cultural diplomacy. She is the author of European and Portuguese Socialists: Party Links in the Transition to Democracy, several journal articles, and chapters in Political Parties and Democracy in Portugal and the Library of Congress’s Handbook of Portuguese Studies. As a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Information Agency for twenty-two years, she served in a number of European posts and in Mexico City. Her Washington assignments included director of the Arts America Program, deputy director of academic exchanges, and director of Equal Employment Opportunity. She holds a Ph.D. in Government (1994) from Georgetown University.
Michael Schneider
Michael Schneider is a professor of practice at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and director of the University's Washington International Program. In the 1980s Schneider was deputy associate and acting associate director of USIA for policy and programs and served as USIA liaison with the National Security Council. He was senior advisor to the Under Secretary of State in the mid-1990s. He served as executive secretary of a panel of U.S. and international leaders who examined the Fulbright Exchange Program, and authored the report, Fulbright at Fifty, and a subsequent report to the State Department, Others' Open Doors.
Jill A. Schuker
Board Member
Jill A. Schuker (The Hon.) is President of JAS International Group, an international strategic communications, issue management, message, media and counseling firm based in Washington, D.C. She has worked with both governments and societies in transition on a range of civil society, reform, policy, media and leadership issues. She served in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Public Affairs at the National Security Council. Earlier in the Administration she served as head of Public Affairs for Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown. She previously served in government as Counselor for Press and Public Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and as Deputy Spokeswoman at the U.S. Department of State. She also was Press Secretary to Governor Hugh L. Carey of New York and Executive Director of the bipartisan New England Congressional Caucus on Capitol Hill. Ms. Schuker has published numerous articles on public diplomacy, civil liberties and security issues and served as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is a Fellow at the University of Southern California Center for Public Diplomacy. She was both a Ford Foundation and European Community Fellow, has served as an official international election observer, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Board member of the Atlantic Council of the United States and the Public Diplomacy Council as well as a member of other non-profit Boards, Advisory Boards and Councils including the International Women’s Media Foundation, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, Vital Voices Global Partnership, the National Security Network, and the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. She received her B.A. in government from Skidmore College and her M.A. from Tufts University.
Leon Shahabian
Marylou Sheils is a former Chief of Staff to the Director, U.S. Information Agency, executive assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Special Assistant for Public Affairs, Department of Defense.
Stanley Silverman
Mr. Silverman served as Comptroller of the U.S. Information Agency among his many positions in the Federal government.
Pamela Smith
Vice President
Board Member
Pamela Hyde Smith held the position of U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova from 2001 to 2003. Until her retirement from the State Department in late 2005, she was a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, having served prior to her Ambassadorship as Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in London, Press Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, and in a first posting at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest. Her Washington positions included Office Director in the Bureau of Information Programs, USIA, managing the Fulbright academic exchange program, and Special Assistant to USIA's Director. From 2003 through 2007, Amb. Smith taught courses on Public Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Starting in 2007, Amb. Smith has intermittently led inspections for the State Department's Office of the Inspector General.
In addition to The Public Diplomacy Council, Amb. Smith serves on the boards of Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and the Colorado chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
Paul R. Smith, a retired Minister-Counselor in the U.S. Foreign Service, served in public diplomacy positions in Moscow, Kiev, East Berlin, Warsaw and Bonn. Before retiring in 2002, his last two assignments were as Consul General in St. Petersburg and Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow. Paul currently provides consulting services to a variety of USG and private sector organizations involved in Eurasian professional development and exchange programs and lives with his wife Christine near Harrisburg, PA. Paul earned a BA in Journalism from the University of Missouri and BA and MA degrees in Russian from the University of Illinois. He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1970.
Nancy Snow
Nancy Snow is a scholar, professor, speaker, and author, with a special interest in how America exercises its soft power and national image in the world. Snow is a former Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Information Agency and Department of State. Her research and teaching specialties are global communications, political communications, propaganda, and persuasive communications.
In 2009 Snow was awarded a Page Legacy Scholarship from the Arthur W. Page Center at Penn State University. She was also awarded a Research Fellow grant from the JFK Presidential Library in Boston. Both grants are to support her research for a book on Edward R. Murrow at USIA called Truth is the Best Propaganda.
Dr. Snow is Associate Professor of Public Diplomacy in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in New York on leave as tenured Associate Professor of Communications at California State University, Fullerton. Dr. Snow worked as a public diplomacy consultant to Dean Geoffrey Cowan of the Annenberg School for Communication in the establishment of the Center on Public Diplomacy and Masters in Public Diplomacy Program at the University of Southern California. Snow was appointed the first Senior Research Fellow at the Center in 2003 and taught as Adjunct Professor in the Annenberg School from 2002-2008. In fall 2007, Dr. Snow was a Senior Research Scholar and Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing, China, where she taught a graduate course in public diplomacy, persuasion, and propaganda.
Dr. Snow has published six books. Her most recent book is Persuader-in-Chief: Global Opinion and Public Diplomacy in the Age of Obama (Ann Arbor, MI: Nimble Books). She is the lead editor of the 2009 Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, (with Philip M. Taylor). Her other books include Propaganda, Inc.: Selling America's Culture to the World (Seven Stories Press, 2002), available in Farsi, Japanese, and Portuguese translation; Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech and Opinion Control Since 9/11 (Seven Stories Press, 2004), available in Japanese and forthcoming in Chinese translation; and The Arrogance of American Power: What U.S. Leaders Are Doing Wrong and Why It's Our Duty to Dissent (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). She was also editor with Yahya Kamalipour of War, Media and Propaganda: A Global Perspective (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.)
Snow has written eighteen chapters for books, seventy-five print and online articles, including op-eds in NewsdayLos Angeles Times, and twenty-five journal articles and reviews in peer reviewed publications. Her most recent journal article is “International Exchanges and the U.S. Image,” in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, (March 2008). Snow has appeared in the mass media over 300 times, including on ABC News, Al Jazeera English, AP, BBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, New York Times, Sky News, Voice of America, and the Washington Post. Her film appearances include The Brothers Warner, War is Sell and “Decoding the Past: Nazi Prophecies” for The History Channel. In addition, she has presented nearly 100 invited lectures in politics and media.
Snow received her Ph.D. in International Relations (magna cum laude) from the School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C., and B.A. in Political Science (summa cum laude) from Clemson University, South Carolina. She was a Graduate Fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at UC-Berkeley. A Fulbright Scholar to Germany, she completed graduate study in German and Political Science at the universities of Regensburg, Bayreuth, and Freiburg.
Snow’s professional associations include lifetime membership with the Council, Public Diplomacy Alumni Association, and Fulbright Association. She is a member of the Academic Leadership Council for Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA), and is a member of the international advisory board for PD, the USC magazine sponsored by the Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars.
Tara Sonenshine
Tara Sonenshine has had a highly distinguished career in media and policy. She is a strategic communications adviser to many international organizations including The U.S. Institute of Peace, where she is focusing on projects related to programmatic outreach and growth. In recent months she has served as a strategic communications advisor to The International Crisis Group, Internews Networks, The Academy of Diplomacy and Women of Washington.
Tara Sonenshine has served in various White House capacities, including transition director for the National Security Council (NSC). In that position, she was responsible for coordinating an interagency process to review foreign policy goals and priorities for the Clinton administration's second term. Before that, she served as special assistant to President Clinton and deputy director of communications for the NSC (1994–95).
In 1998, Sonenshine was at the Brookings Institution studying foreign policy and communications. Her career began in broadcast journalism in 1982 at ABC News in New York, where she served as assistant to David Burke, the vice president of news. Sonenshine went on to become editorial producer of ABC News' Nightline, where she worked for more than a decade. She was also an off-air reporter at the Pentagon for ABC's World News Tonight. During her tenure at ABC News, Sonenshine earned ten News Emmy Awards for coverage of China, Iran, the Philippines, and South Africa. She also won the Columbia-DuPont Award for coverage of the Los Angeles riots. A former contributing editor for Newsweek, Sonenshine is the author of numerous articles on foreign affairs published in New York Times, Washington Post, and other newspapers.
Tara is a graduate of Tufts University with a major in political science. She is married with 2 children.
Maria Elena Torano
Ms. Torano served as a member of the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.
John H. Trattner
Board Member
From 1987-2005, Trattner served as vice president and senior editor and writer of the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government, where he has authored eight books dealing with various dimensions of politically appointed service in the federal executive branch. A former 20-year career diplomat in the U.S. Information Agency and the Department of State, he held the posts of press attaché at U.S. embassies in Warsaw and Paris, deputy public affairs counselor at the U.S. Mission to NATO, executive assistant to the deputy secretary of state, and State Department press spokesman, among others. Earlier, as a journalist, he worked for daily and weekly newspapers and a news agency in the U.S. and freelanced in Europe for network radio and two U.S. news magazines. After his diplomatic service, he was press secretary to former Senator George Mitchell before heading the writers group of a Washington public affairs firm. He has taught graduate-level public affairs and journalism at the American University, authored op-ed and analysis articles in publications that include the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor, appeared in numerous radio and television discussions on media and government topics, and spoken to business, editorial board, and student audiences around the country.
Deborah L. Trent
Deborah L. (Debbie) Trent is a doctoral student writing her dissertation on U.S. public diplomacy toward Lebanon. She is affiliated with The George Washington University, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. Prior to beginning doctoral studies, from 1983 to 1998, Debbie served the U.S. Government first as a Presidential Management Intern, and then in various program management positions in the U.S. Information Agency's Office of Academic Programs, now part of the Public Diplomacy under secretariat at the U.S. Department of State. Her experience at USIA included the program branches for NEA, Europe, College and University Partnerships, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowships. In 1998, Debbie left government to continue work in public diplomacy in the non-profit sector, consulting for colleges, universities, and international education and training NGOs. Ms. Trent holds an MPA from GW and a B.S. in Russian and Arabic from Georgetown University.
Publications on public diplomacy:
"Partnership Program Strengthens U.S.-NIS University Linkages." USIA World 15(4): 12-13. Washington, D.C., U.S. Information Agency, 1997.
"155 Muskie Fellows from the Former Soviet Union Begin Their Studies in the U.S." USIA World 12(3): 11. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Information Agency, 1993.
Willing to make presentations on:
Public diplomacy as an academic discipline and professional practice from the perspective of public administration theory and practice
Diaspora diplomacy
Collaborative public diplomacy
Public diplomacy in the Near East
Hans "Tom" N. Tuch
Emeritus Board Member
Hans N. Tuch, a retired Career Minister in the U.S. Foreign Service, served in public diplomacy positions in Germany, the Soviet Union, and Brazil. He was Deputy Chief of Mission and charge in Bulgaria and Brazil. In Washington, he served as Deputy and Area Director for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in USIA, and as Deputy and Acting Director of the Voice of America. After his retirement in 1985, he taught public diplomacy and intercultural communications at Georgetown University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is the author of Communicating with the World: U.S. Public Diplomacy Overseas.
Richard Virden
Dick Virden retired from the Department of State in 2004 after more than 38 years in the Foreign Service, the final two as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Brasilia. He had a previous tour in Brazil as well as postings in Portugal, Romania, Poland (twice), Thailand (twice) and Vietnam. From 1986 to 1997, Virden directed public diplomacy programs successively at American embassies in Lisbon, Bucharest and Warsaw. From 1998 to 2000, he was deputy director of public diplomacy for Europe at the time the U.S. Information Agency was incorporated into the State Department. A graduate of the National War College, Virden also served on the faculty of that senior service college for two years and as a diplomat-in-residence at Georgetown University, where he created and taught a course on the evolution of public diplomacy. A native of Minnesota, Virden now lives in the Minneapolis suburbs and serves as a volunteer diplomat-in-residence at his alma mater, St. John’s University, and its sister college, St. Benedict’s. He also co-teaches a course on the foreign policy process at the Hubert Humphrey Institute of the University of Minnesota. Virden has received a series of U.S. government superior, meritorious, and Senior Foreign Service performance awards. In 1999, President Aleksander Kwasniewski decorated him with Poland’s Knight’s Cross for his leadership in advancing relations between the countries as president of the bilateral Fulbright educational commission during the mid-90s. Mr. Virden is married to the former Linda Larson, who is also from Minnesota. They have a son, Andrew, who was born in Brazil in 1974.
Sandy Vogelgesang
Ambassador Vogelgesang is a veteran diplomat, writer and civic activist. During her thirty-year career with the U.S. Government, she held numerous positions such as serving as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Nepal, Special Advisor to the Administrator for the Agency for International Development, the Principal Deputy for International Programs at the Environmental Protection Agency, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, and Educational Exchange Officer at the U.S. Information Service in Helsinki, Finland. Since leaving the Foreign Service, she has focused on such global issues as the environment, human rights, and the role of women in developing nations, in addition to work on local politics.
Ambassador Vogelgesang has published many articles on foreign policy, including public diplomacy, and two books: The Long Dark Night of the Soul: the American Intellectual Left and the Vietnam War, (1974) and American Dream – Global Nightmare: The Dilemma of U.S. Human Rights Policy (1980). Her Ph.D. thesis was the first written under the auspices of the Edward R. Murrow Center at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University. She is now a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Foreign Service Association and the President’s Council of Cornell Women and is active in several international nonprofit organizations.
Elizabeth A. Whitaker
Elizabeth “Betsy” Whitaker joined MPRI, a division of L-3 Communications, as Director for Integrated Support to Pubic Diplomacy in early 2008 after a 23-year career as Foreign Service Officer specializing in public diplomacy. Her last assignment with the State Department was as Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for North America in the Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, where she oversaw all aspects of policy toward Canada and Mexico.
Prior to her assignment as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Ms. Whitaker served as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department under Secretary Colin Powell. In that position, she was responsible for the policy content and logistics of the Secretary’s travel, as well as coordinating the flow of information with the Department between the Department and the US Government interagency community. Subsequently, at the request of Department leadership, Ms. Whitaker created and directed the Office of Policy, Planning and Resources for the Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. That office continues to ensure that public diplomacy resources are spent effectively and in support of policy objectives.
Ms. Whitaker’s other Washington assignments included service as Director of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs for the Western Hemisphere, Senior Level Career Development Officer, Director of Training for USIA (prior to its merger with the Department of State), Executive Assistant to the Counselor of USIA, and desk officer for Central America.
Ms. Whitaker served in public diplomacy assignments overseas in Portugal, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. She speaks fluent Spanish and is conversant in Portuguese and French. She retired with the rank of Minister-Counselor, and received numerous Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards for outstanding professional performance, as well as Senior Performance Pay.
Ms. Whitaker is a graduate of the Department of State’s Senior Seminar, as well as the University of Rochester (BA, History; MS, Education). Prior to joining the Foreign Service, she taught public high school in Brighton, New York for seven years. In January of this year, she joined MPRI as their Director for Integrated Support to Public Diplomacy.
Ms. Whitaker is married to Senior Foreign Service Officer Kevin Whitaker, with whom she has one son, Daniel, aged 14.
Myrna R. Whitworth
Myrna Whitworth, a 28 year veteran of the Voice of America, served as acting director of the agency on three separate occasions, including in the fall of 2001. At the time of her retirement in 2002, she was VOA Program Director. Prior to being named to that position in 1998, she was the International Broadcasting Bureau's first Director of Affiliate Relations and Media Training from 1992-1998. Her early career was spent in VOA News where she served as Executive Producer of VOA's flagship news program. Whitworth traveled extensively on behalf of VOA, meeting with government and broadcasting officials, addressing international gatherings and serving as a member of various international broadcasting committees. Since retirement, she has tutored ESL students and teaches a course in International Media and Politics at Mount St. Mary's University.
Barry Zorthian
Emeritus Board Member
Barry Zorthian is a communications consultant in the government and public affairs firm of Alcalde & Fay in Washington, DC. A former senior U.S. foreign officer and Vice President of Time Inc. (now Time Warner), he has an extensive background in government, journalism and communications. He is a graduate of Yale University and New York University School of Law, a retired Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, served 13 years with the Voice of America, the last five as Program Manager, and seven years in the foreign service, first in India and four and a half years in Vietnam in charge of all in-country and media relations. After twelve years with Time, including Time-Life Broadcast and Cable and Washington Affairs, he has been a communications consultant in Washington since 1980. He has served on the Board for International Broadcasting with jurisdiction over Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
Specialties: International broadcasting; media relations; civilian/military relations
Mr. Novak is a retired Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Information Agency and served with the Voice of America.
Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Joseph Nye is the Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations and former Dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, did postgraduate work at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and earned a PhD in political science from Harvard. He has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology. He chaired the National Security Council Group on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In recognition of his service, he received the highest Department of State commendation, the Distinguished Honor Award. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Academy of Diplomacy, Mr. Nye has also been a Senior Fellow of the Aspen Institute, Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission. He has served as a director of the Institute for East-West Security Studies, a director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a member of the advisory committee of the Institute of International Economics, and the American representative on the United Nations Advisory Committee on Disarmament Affairs. He has been a trustee of Wells College and Radcliff College. A member of the editorial boards of Foreign Policy and International Security magazines, he is the author of numerous books and more than a hundred and fifty articles in professional journals. In 2004, he published Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, Understanding International Conflict (5th edition), and The Power Game: A Washington Novel. His other books include: Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power (1990), Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2002), and The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone (2002).
Donna M. Oglesby
Currently, Diplomat in Residence at Eckerd College, where she teaches courses on international relations and American foreign policy, Donna Oglesby has over twenty-five years experience in cultural and public diplomacy in representation of the United States. She served abroad in American embassies in numerous countries around the world including Austria, Brazil and Thailand. And, she held various senior positions in Washington culminating in service as Counselor of the Agency, the ranking career position in the United States Information Agency (USIA) from 1993-96. In addition to being faculty at Eckerd College, Professor Oglesby is a member of ASPEC (Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd College), a member of the Tampa Bay Committee on Foreign Affairs, and a member of the Public Diplomacy Council affiliated with George Washington University. Articles by Donna Oglesby on cultural and public diplomacy have been published by the United States Institute of Peace and the Foreign Service Journal. Educated in the United States and abroad, Professor Oglesby earned her BA from Washington College and a Masters in International Affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. She is the recipient of numerous awards including: the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange Award for Outstanding Service; USIA Distinguished Honor Award; the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a Presidential Honor Award.
Victor B. Olason
Born in Seattle and a graduate of the University of Washington, Olason joined the United States Information Agency in 1959 after a six-year career as a reporter and editor at The Seattle Times. He served in three Latin American posts, Santiago, Lima and Guatemala City, was press attaché in Bonn and headed USIS posts in Reykjavik, Cairo, at USNATO in Brussels and in Rome. Among his Washington assignments were directorships of the agency’s Latin American area office, its press and publications service and its European area office. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1995 with the rank of career minister. He is proficient in Spanish and German and has a working knowledge of French and Italian.
Dell Pendergrast
Dell Pendergrast was most recently the director of the George J. Mitchell Scholarships for Americans studying in Ireland and Northern Ireland. He entered the Foreign Service in 1965 and served 32 years with the U.S. Information Agency. During his last assignment he was the senior career officer in USIA responsible for all international cultural and educational exchange programs worldwide. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and Boston University.
Patti McGill Peterson
Dr. Peterson is a Vice President of the Institute of International education and the Executive Director of the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars which manages a portion of the Fulbright Academic Program under contract form the U.S. Department of state. Additional information may be found on the IIE website.
Adam Clayton Powell, III
Board Member
Adam Clayton Powell III is the vice provost for Globalization at the University of Southern California, working closely with faculty and deans to advance the university's globalization initiative, expanding USC's international presence, increasing its leadership role in the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and promoting the university throughout the world.
Powell previously served as director of the USC Integrated Media Systems Center, the National Science Foundation's Research Center for multimedia research. He is also a senior fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, which is housed in the Annenberg School for Communication.
Powell brings considerable international experience to his role in the Office of the Provost. He helped form and then run training programs and forums on digital media in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States and on new media for journalists, media managers, educators, policymakers and researchers for the Freedom Forum, first as a consultant, then as director, and finally as vice president. He worked on projects in South Africa for the Ford Foundation, as well as projects in Lagos, Nigeria for the Nigerian Television Authority. He also helped create the annual Highway Africa conference in South Africa, which has become the largest conference in communications and digital media on the African continent.
Powell is widely published, and many of his writings draw on his significant international experience. He recently contributed a chapter to America's Dialogue with the World (Public Diplomacy Council, 2007) and published a book entitled Reinventing Local News: Connecting with Communities Using New Technologies (Figueroa Press, 2006). He has also written for a number of publications, including The New York Times, Wired Magazine and Online Journalism Review.
Prior to joining the USC faculty in 2003, Powell was general manager of WHUT-TV, the nation's first African-American-owned public television station. He also was the founding general manager of KMTP-TV in San Francisco, the nation's second African-American-owned public television station, which he helped put on the air in 1991. He has also served as an executive producer at Quincy Jones Entertainment; vice president for news and information programming at National Public Radio; manager of network radio and television news for CBS News; and news director of all-news WINS in New York.
Powell has won numerous awards, including the 1999 World Technology Award for Media and Journalism, sponsored by The Economist, and the Overseas Press Club Award for international reporting for a series of broadcasts he produced on Iran for CBS News.
Anthony C. E. QuaintonAnthony Quainton is currently Distinguished Diplomat in Residence at American University and serves as a member of the Academy and of the Council on Foreign Relations. Before assuming these positions he was president and CEO of the National Policy Association, a Washington research and policy group committed to the promotion of business-labor dialogue. He served for 38 years in the Foreign Service of the United States with posts on every continent. He was Ambassador in Peru, Nicaragua, Kuwait and the Central African Republic. He held senior positions in the Department of State including Coordinator for Counter-terrorism, Deputy Inspector General, Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security, and Director General of the Foreign Service. He was educated at Princeton and Oxford Universities. He speaks French and Spanish.
Walter R. Roberts
Emeritus Board Member
Walter R. Roberts is a foreign policy consultant and a former Foreign Service officer who began his government career with the Voice of America and retired as Associate Director of the U.S. Information Agency, then USIA's top career position. He was appointed by President George H.W. Bush and reappointed by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. He taught public diplomacy at George Washington University and is the author of Tito, Mihailovic and the Allies, 1941-1945 and of numerous articles on various aspects of foreign policy in professional publications. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs and served on the board of George Washington University's Public Diplomacy Institute.
Dorothy Robins-Mowry
Emerita Board Member
Dorothy Robins-Mowry, with a Ph.D. in International Relations, is a Phi Beta Kappa lecturer at American universities on Asian affairs, Japanese Women, and International Communication. A former senior Foreign Service Officer with the United States Information Agency, she served in Japan and Iran with extensive temporary duty in South Korea, Southeast Asia, and India. In the U.S., she directed programs for overseas posts on U.S. political and social processes and served as policy officer for North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Author of a series of books and pamphlets on Japan, Asia, and the United Nations, she also worked with a number of think tanks including the Aspen Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Russell C. Rochte
Russell C. Rochte, Jr. is the faculty member for Information Operations at the National Defense Intelligence College, where he has authored and offered courses on Information Operations; Intelligence, Propaganda, and Influence; basic Computer Network Operations; and The Advanced Information Operations Seminar (focusing on Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication) since joining the College in 2005. He lectures several times yearly at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany on topics in Strategic Information Operations. He is also a guest lecturer at the National Defense University, and is a frequently-requested speaker at a variety of other information operations-related courses and events both in CONUS and abroad.
A retired Army lieutenant colonel with over 25 yearís active commissioned service, Mr. Rochte also help positions as the Chief of the US Armyís Proponency for Information Operations, and as Professor of Systems Management at the Information Resources Management College of the National Defense University.
Mr. Rochte holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Troy State University, and has completed additional post-graduate work in information assurance. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and holds a General Class radio license from the US Federal Communication Commission.
Willing to make presentations on:
- US Information Operations doctrines and practices; Media War; propaganda and analysis of same; and intelligence support to public diplomacy.
Retired FSO Richard F. Ross possesses 28 years of pubic diplomacy experience in seven countries, doing both information and cultural work with USIA. His last career position was as Public Affairs Officer in Morocco. ? ?
Ross has traveled extensively in Asia and the Middle East, and lived in Beirut, Amman, Jerusalem, Calcutta, Colombo, Kabul, Rabat, San'a, and Damascus. He spent five years in France, first as a cultural attaché, and later as the Public Affairs Advisor with the U.S. Delegation to UNESCO. His last assignment was Afghanistan Policy Advisor for USIA.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ross attended Vanderbilt and the University of Florida. While in Gainesville he and others founded The Blue Horse, a movement devoted principally to poetry. Ross held both enlisted and commissioned ranks of the U.S. Army; and after military service was a newspaper writer at the Ft. Lauderdale News. Since retiring from USIA, Ross has done stints as a language school Director, and English instructor for the National Parliament of Yemen. Most recently, he was a contract staffer in the Political Section of U.S. Embassy, Colombo.
Ross has chaired and directed Fulbright and other bi-national programs in Morocco, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. While in Colombo, he was an invited speaker at the last Bandaranaike International Conference, addressing issues of the U.S. in South Asia.
Richard Ross resides in downtown Washington, DC where he has been a participant and docent with the Historical Society of the District of Columbia. He has also long been a board member of the “Fondation des Etats Unis” in Paris.
William Rugh
Board Member
William Rugh, who holds a PhD in political science, is the author of "Arab Mass Media" and many articles on Middle Eastern subjects. He was a U.S. Foreign Service officer for 30 years, and during that time he served at embassies in six Arab countries, including as American Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (1992-95) and Ambassador to Yemen (1984-87). During his career he held several public diplomacy positions, including Area Director for Near East and South Asia (1989-92), and PAO in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Between 1995 and 2003 he was President of AMIDEAST, an American non-profit organization.
McKinney H. Russell
McKinney Russell, a retired Foreign Service officer, is a consultant on US exchanges and training programs overseas. In his final Foreign Service post as Counselor of the US Information Agency, that organization's senior career position, he set up the first American cultural centers in the newly independent states during the early 1990s. As the US Embassy's Minister Counselor for Public Affairs, he headed US information, cultural, and exchange programs in the USSR, Germany, Brazil, Spain, and China. His career also included directing the television and film service of USIA and Voice of America broadcasts to the Soviet Union. He achieved the rank of Career Minister in the Foreign Service. He serves on the board of directors of George Washington University's Public Diplomacy Institute and is the immediate past president of the Public Diplomacy Council.
Juliet Antunes Sablosky
Juliet Antunes Sablosky is Adjunct Professor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown University, where she teaches courses in European politics and cultural diplomacy. She is the author of European and Portuguese Socialists: Party Links in the Transition to Democracy, several journal articles, and chapters in Political Parties and Democracy in Portugal and the Library of Congress’s Handbook of Portuguese Studies. As a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Information Agency for twenty-two years, she served in a number of European posts and in Mexico City. Her Washington assignments included director of the Arts America Program, deputy director of academic exchanges, and director of Equal Employment Opportunity. She holds a Ph.D. in Government (1994) from Georgetown University.
Michael Schneider
Michael Schneider is a professor of practice at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and director of the University's Washington International Program. In the 1980s Schneider was deputy associate and acting associate director of USIA for policy and programs and served as USIA liaison with the National Security Council. He was senior advisor to the Under Secretary of State in the mid-1990s. He served as executive secretary of a panel of U.S. and international leaders who examined the Fulbright Exchange Program, and authored the report, Fulbright at Fifty, and a subsequent report to the State Department, Others' Open Doors.
Jill A. Schuker
Board Member
Jill A. Schuker (The Hon.) is President of JAS International Group, an international strategic communications, issue management, message, media and counseling firm based in Washington, D.C. She has worked with both governments and societies in transition on a range of civil society, reform, policy, media and leadership issues. She served in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Public Affairs at the National Security Council. Earlier in the Administration she served as head of Public Affairs for Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown. She previously served in government as Counselor for Press and Public Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and as Deputy Spokeswoman at the U.S. Department of State. She also was Press Secretary to Governor Hugh L. Carey of New York and Executive Director of the bipartisan New England Congressional Caucus on Capitol Hill. Ms. Schuker has published numerous articles on public diplomacy, civil liberties and security issues and served as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is a Fellow at the University of Southern California Center for Public Diplomacy. She was both a Ford Foundation and European Community Fellow, has served as an official international election observer, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Board member of the Atlantic Council of the United States and the Public Diplomacy Council as well as a member of other non-profit Boards, Advisory Boards and Councils including the International Women’s Media Foundation, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, Vital Voices Global Partnership, the National Security Network, and the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. She received her B.A. in government from Skidmore College and her M.A. from Tufts University.
Leon Shahabian
Leon Shahabian serves as Vice President & Treasurer of Layalina Productions, positions he has held since November 2003. He is the executive producer of both seasons of the hit reality series On the Road in America, as well as the producer and executive producer of Life After Death, an award-winning documentary about families affected by Al-Qaeda terrorism. Leon also executive produced Layalina’s discussion show Araeh (Opinions). Additionally, Mr. Shahabian serves as Senior Editor of The Layalina Review on Public Diplomacy and Arab Media, Perspectives and The Chronicle. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Pennsylvania State University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in International Politics and French Language and Literature, Leon is fluent in Armenian, Arabic, and French. He joined Layalina as a founding staff member in March 2002.
Marylou Sheils
Marylou Sheils is a former Chief of Staff to the Director, U.S. Information Agency, executive assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Special Assistant for Public Affairs, Department of Defense.
Judith Siegel
Judith Siegel is on the adjunct faculty of NYU’s Center for Global Affairs where she teaches on public diplomacy, media and global opinion. She retired from the State Department in 2006 where she was a deputy coordinator in the International Information Programs Bureau in the career Senior Executive Service. Siegel migrated to the Department from the U.S. Information Agency with the 1999 merger. At USIA she held a number of positions additional to IIP deputy coordinator, including Deputy Associate Director of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, director of the Study of the U.S. Program, director of Student Advising, and ECA grants coordinator. Prior to her service at USIA she worked in Washington at the National Endowment for the Humanities and at the National Institute of Education. Siegel holds a PhD in Education and English from the University of Chicago and a BA from Brooklyn College.
Stanley Silverman
Mr. Silverman served as Comptroller of the U.S. Information Agency among his many positions in the Federal government.
Pamela Smith
Vice President
Board Member
Pamela Hyde Smith held the position of U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova from 2001 to 2003. Until her retirement from the State Department in late 2005, she was a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, having served prior to her Ambassadorship as Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in London, Press Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, and in a first posting at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest. Her Washington positions included Office Director in the Bureau of Information Programs, USIA, managing the Fulbright academic exchange program, and Special Assistant to USIA's Director. From 2003 through 2007, Amb. Smith taught courses on Public Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Starting in 2007, Amb. Smith has intermittently led inspections for the State Department's Office of the Inspector General.
In addition to The Public Diplomacy Council, Amb. Smith serves on the boards of Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and the Colorado chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
Her languages are Romanian, Indonesian, Serbo-Croatian and French. She holds a B.A. degree in Art History from Wellesley College.
Paul R. SmithPaul R. Smith, a retired Minister-Counselor in the U.S. Foreign Service, served in public diplomacy positions in Moscow, Kiev, East Berlin, Warsaw and Bonn. Before retiring in 2002, his last two assignments were as Consul General in St. Petersburg and Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow. Paul currently provides consulting services to a variety of USG and private sector organizations involved in Eurasian professional development and exchange programs and lives with his wife Christine near Harrisburg, PA. Paul earned a BA in Journalism from the University of Missouri and BA and MA degrees in Russian from the University of Illinois. He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1970.
Nancy Snow
Nancy Snow is a scholar, professor, speaker, and author, with a special interest in how America exercises its soft power and national image in the world. Snow is a former Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Information Agency and Department of State. Her research and teaching specialties are global communications, political communications, propaganda, and persuasive communications.
In 2009 Snow was awarded a Page Legacy Scholarship from the Arthur W. Page Center at Penn State University. She was also awarded a Research Fellow grant from the JFK Presidential Library in Boston. Both grants are to support her research for a book on Edward R. Murrow at USIA called Truth is the Best Propaganda.
Dr. Snow is Associate Professor of Public Diplomacy in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in New York on leave as tenured Associate Professor of Communications at California State University, Fullerton. Dr. Snow worked as a public diplomacy consultant to Dean Geoffrey Cowan of the Annenberg School for Communication in the establishment of the Center on Public Diplomacy and Masters in Public Diplomacy Program at the University of Southern California. Snow was appointed the first Senior Research Fellow at the Center in 2003 and taught as Adjunct Professor in the Annenberg School from 2002-2008. In fall 2007, Dr. Snow was a Senior Research Scholar and Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing, China, where she taught a graduate course in public diplomacy, persuasion, and propaganda.
Dr. Snow has published six books. Her most recent book is Persuader-in-Chief: Global Opinion and Public Diplomacy in the Age of Obama (Ann Arbor, MI: Nimble Books). She is the lead editor of the 2009 Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, (with Philip M. Taylor). Her other books include Propaganda, Inc.: Selling America's Culture to the World (Seven Stories Press, 2002), available in Farsi, Japanese, and Portuguese translation; Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech and Opinion Control Since 9/11 (Seven Stories Press, 2004), available in Japanese and forthcoming in Chinese translation; and The Arrogance of American Power: What U.S. Leaders Are Doing Wrong and Why It's Our Duty to Dissent (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). She was also editor with Yahya Kamalipour of War, Media and Propaganda: A Global Perspective (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.)
Snow has written eighteen chapters for books, seventy-five print and online articles, including op-eds in NewsdayLos Angeles Times, and twenty-five journal articles and reviews in peer reviewed publications. Her most recent journal article is “International Exchanges and the U.S. Image,” in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, (March 2008). Snow has appeared in the mass media over 300 times, including on ABC News, Al Jazeera English, AP, BBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, New York Times, Sky News, Voice of America, and the Washington Post. Her film appearances include The Brothers Warner, War is Sell and “Decoding the Past: Nazi Prophecies” for The History Channel. In addition, she has presented nearly 100 invited lectures in politics and media.
Snow received her Ph.D. in International Relations (magna cum laude) from the School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C., and B.A. in Political Science (summa cum laude) from Clemson University, South Carolina. She was a Graduate Fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at UC-Berkeley. A Fulbright Scholar to Germany, she completed graduate study in German and Political Science at the universities of Regensburg, Bayreuth, and Freiburg.
Snow’s professional associations include lifetime membership with the Council, Public Diplomacy Alumni Association, and Fulbright Association. She is a member of the Academic Leadership Council for Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA), and is a member of the international advisory board for PD, the USC magazine sponsored by the Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars.
Tara Sonenshine
Tara Sonenshine has had a highly distinguished career in media and policy. She is a strategic communications adviser to many international organizations including The U.S. Institute of Peace, where she is focusing on projects related to programmatic outreach and growth. In recent months she has served as a strategic communications advisor to The International Crisis Group, Internews Networks, The Academy of Diplomacy and Women of Washington.
Tara Sonenshine has served in various White House capacities, including transition director for the National Security Council (NSC). In that position, she was responsible for coordinating an interagency process to review foreign policy goals and priorities for the Clinton administration's second term. Before that, she served as special assistant to President Clinton and deputy director of communications for the NSC (1994–95).
In 1998, Sonenshine was at the Brookings Institution studying foreign policy and communications. Her career began in broadcast journalism in 1982 at ABC News in New York, where she served as assistant to David Burke, the vice president of news. Sonenshine went on to become editorial producer of ABC News' Nightline, where she worked for more than a decade. She was also an off-air reporter at the Pentagon for ABC's World News Tonight. During her tenure at ABC News, Sonenshine earned ten News Emmy Awards for coverage of China, Iran, the Philippines, and South Africa. She also won the Columbia-DuPont Award for coverage of the Los Angeles riots. A former contributing editor for Newsweek, Sonenshine is the author of numerous articles on foreign affairs published in New York Times, Washington Post, and other newspapers.
Tara is a graduate of Tufts University with a major in political science. She is married with 2 children.
Maria Elena Torano
Ms. Torano served as a member of the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.
John H. Trattner
Board Member
From 1987-2005, Trattner served as vice president and senior editor and writer of the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government, where he has authored eight books dealing with various dimensions of politically appointed service in the federal executive branch. A former 20-year career diplomat in the U.S. Information Agency and the Department of State, he held the posts of press attaché at U.S. embassies in Warsaw and Paris, deputy public affairs counselor at the U.S. Mission to NATO, executive assistant to the deputy secretary of state, and State Department press spokesman, among others. Earlier, as a journalist, he worked for daily and weekly newspapers and a news agency in the U.S. and freelanced in Europe for network radio and two U.S. news magazines. After his diplomatic service, he was press secretary to former Senator George Mitchell before heading the writers group of a Washington public affairs firm. He has taught graduate-level public affairs and journalism at the American University, authored op-ed and analysis articles in publications that include the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor, appeared in numerous radio and television discussions on media and government topics, and spoken to business, editorial board, and student audiences around the country.
Deborah L. Trent
Deborah L. (Debbie) Trent is a doctoral student writing her dissertation on U.S. public diplomacy toward Lebanon. She is affiliated with The George Washington University, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. Prior to beginning doctoral studies, from 1983 to 1998, Debbie served the U.S. Government first as a Presidential Management Intern, and then in various program management positions in the U.S. Information Agency's Office of Academic Programs, now part of the Public Diplomacy under secretariat at the U.S. Department of State. Her experience at USIA included the program branches for NEA, Europe, College and University Partnerships, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowships. In 1998, Debbie left government to continue work in public diplomacy in the non-profit sector, consulting for colleges, universities, and international education and training NGOs. Ms. Trent holds an MPA from GW and a B.S. in Russian and Arabic from Georgetown University.
Publications on public diplomacy:
"Partnership Program Strengthens U.S.-NIS University Linkages." USIA World 15(4): 12-13. Washington, D.C., U.S. Information Agency, 1997.
"155 Muskie Fellows from the Former Soviet Union Begin Their Studies in the U.S." USIA World 12(3): 11. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Information Agency, 1993.
Willing to make presentations on:
Public diplomacy as an academic discipline and professional practice from the perspective of public administration theory and practice
Diaspora diplomacy
Collaborative public diplomacy
Public diplomacy in the Near East
Hans "Tom" N. Tuch
Emeritus Board Member
Hans N. Tuch, a retired Career Minister in the U.S. Foreign Service, served in public diplomacy positions in Germany, the Soviet Union, and Brazil. He was Deputy Chief of Mission and charge in Bulgaria and Brazil. In Washington, he served as Deputy and Area Director for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in USIA, and as Deputy and Acting Director of the Voice of America. After his retirement in 1985, he taught public diplomacy and intercultural communications at Georgetown University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is the author of Communicating with the World: U.S. Public Diplomacy Overseas.
Richard Virden
Dick Virden retired from the Department of State in 2004 after more than 38 years in the Foreign Service, the final two as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Brasilia. He had a previous tour in Brazil as well as postings in Portugal, Romania, Poland (twice), Thailand (twice) and Vietnam. From 1986 to 1997, Virden directed public diplomacy programs successively at American embassies in Lisbon, Bucharest and Warsaw. From 1998 to 2000, he was deputy director of public diplomacy for Europe at the time the U.S. Information Agency was incorporated into the State Department. A graduate of the National War College, Virden also served on the faculty of that senior service college for two years and as a diplomat-in-residence at Georgetown University, where he created and taught a course on the evolution of public diplomacy. A native of Minnesota, Virden now lives in the Minneapolis suburbs and serves as a volunteer diplomat-in-residence at his alma mater, St. John’s University, and its sister college, St. Benedict’s. He also co-teaches a course on the foreign policy process at the Hubert Humphrey Institute of the University of Minnesota. Virden has received a series of U.S. government superior, meritorious, and Senior Foreign Service performance awards. In 1999, President Aleksander Kwasniewski decorated him with Poland’s Knight’s Cross for his leadership in advancing relations between the countries as president of the bilateral Fulbright educational commission during the mid-90s. Mr. Virden is married to the former Linda Larson, who is also from Minnesota. They have a son, Andrew, who was born in Brazil in 1974.
Sandy Vogelgesang
Ambassador Vogelgesang is a veteran diplomat, writer and civic activist. During her thirty-year career with the U.S. Government, she held numerous positions such as serving as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Nepal, Special Advisor to the Administrator for the Agency for International Development, the Principal Deputy for International Programs at the Environmental Protection Agency, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, and Educational Exchange Officer at the U.S. Information Service in Helsinki, Finland. Since leaving the Foreign Service, she has focused on such global issues as the environment, human rights, and the role of women in developing nations, in addition to work on local politics.
Ambassador Vogelgesang has published many articles on foreign policy, including public diplomacy, and two books: The Long Dark Night of the Soul: the American Intellectual Left and the Vietnam War, (1974) and American Dream – Global Nightmare: The Dilemma of U.S. Human Rights Policy (1980). Her Ph.D. thesis was the first written under the auspices of the Edward R. Murrow Center at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University. She is now a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Foreign Service Association and the President’s Council of Cornell Women and is active in several international nonprofit organizations.
Elizabeth A. Whitaker
Elizabeth “Betsy” Whitaker joined MPRI, a division of L-3 Communications, as Director for Integrated Support to Pubic Diplomacy in early 2008 after a 23-year career as Foreign Service Officer specializing in public diplomacy. Her last assignment with the State Department was as Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for North America in the Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, where she oversaw all aspects of policy toward Canada and Mexico.
Prior to her assignment as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Ms. Whitaker served as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department under Secretary Colin Powell. In that position, she was responsible for the policy content and logistics of the Secretary’s travel, as well as coordinating the flow of information with the Department between the Department and the US Government interagency community. Subsequently, at the request of Department leadership, Ms. Whitaker created and directed the Office of Policy, Planning and Resources for the Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. That office continues to ensure that public diplomacy resources are spent effectively and in support of policy objectives.
Ms. Whitaker’s other Washington assignments included service as Director of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs for the Western Hemisphere, Senior Level Career Development Officer, Director of Training for USIA (prior to its merger with the Department of State), Executive Assistant to the Counselor of USIA, and desk officer for Central America.
Ms. Whitaker served in public diplomacy assignments overseas in Portugal, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. She speaks fluent Spanish and is conversant in Portuguese and French. She retired with the rank of Minister-Counselor, and received numerous Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards for outstanding professional performance, as well as Senior Performance Pay.
Ms. Whitaker is a graduate of the Department of State’s Senior Seminar, as well as the University of Rochester (BA, History; MS, Education). Prior to joining the Foreign Service, she taught public high school in Brighton, New York for seven years. In January of this year, she joined MPRI as their Director for Integrated Support to Public Diplomacy.
Ms. Whitaker is married to Senior Foreign Service Officer Kevin Whitaker, with whom she has one son, Daniel, aged 14.
Myrna R. Whitworth
Myrna Whitworth, a 28 year veteran of the Voice of America, served as acting director of the agency on three separate occasions, including in the fall of 2001. At the time of her retirement in 2002, she was VOA Program Director. Prior to being named to that position in 1998, she was the International Broadcasting Bureau's first Director of Affiliate Relations and Media Training from 1992-1998. Her early career was spent in VOA News where she served as Executive Producer of VOA's flagship news program. Whitworth traveled extensively on behalf of VOA, meeting with government and broadcasting officials, addressing international gatherings and serving as a member of various international broadcasting committees. Since retirement, she has tutored ESL students and teaches a course in International Media and Politics at Mount St. Mary's University.
Barry Zorthian
Emeritus Board Member
Barry Zorthian is a communications consultant in the government and public affairs firm of Alcalde & Fay in Washington, DC. A former senior U.S. foreign officer and Vice President of Time Inc. (now Time Warner), he has an extensive background in government, journalism and communications. He is a graduate of Yale University and New York University School of Law, a retired Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, served 13 years with the Voice of America, the last five as Program Manager, and seven years in the foreign service, first in India and four and a half years in Vietnam in charge of all in-country and media relations. After twelve years with Time, including Time-Life Broadcast and Cable and Washington Affairs, he has been a communications consultant in Washington since 1980. He has served on the Board for International Broadcasting with jurisdiction over Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
Specialties: International broadcasting; media relations; civilian/military relations
