Andrea Stanford Named 2025 Ameri Prize Recipient

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 29, 2025 — The U.S. Department of State and the USC Center on Public Diplomacy (CPD) have announced Andrea Stanford, Press Officer at U.S. Embassy Mexico City, as the 2025 recipient of the Ameri Prize for Innovation in Public Diplomacy.

The Ameri Prize honors U.S. foreign and civil service officers whose creativity and leadership advance the practice of public diplomacy worldwide. Established in 2021, the annual award is endowed by Goli Ameri, entrepreneur, philanthropist, CPD board member, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. “Public diplomacy delivers significant impact when creative minds break barriers to reach people in impactful ways,” said Ameri. “Andrea Stanford embodies that spirit. She has transformed how the U.S. government communicates about illegal immigration. Her work has built trust, reduced illegal immigration, and set a new standard for what public diplomacy can achieve.”

As Press Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, Stanford led groundbreaking initiatives including digital platforms to eliminate illegal immigration and turned a small pilot into trusted global channels.  She launched the Department of State’s first monthly Illegal Immigration Facebook Live series, which drew nearly one million viewers, countered propaganda, and connected intending illegal immigrants directly with U.S. policy.  

She grew the Embassy’s WhatsApp channel—first launched in Ciudad Juárez—from 30,000 to over 360,000 subscribers in just six months, making it the U.S. government’s largest channel to reach illegal immigrants directly and counter smuggler narratives in real time. Her creative campaigns—like printing QR-coded messages on 700,000 tortilla wrappers—have reached would-be illegal immigrants at critical moments. And through convening the inaugural Department of State Counter Illegal Immigration Messaging Conference, she aligned more than 50 interagency partners behind a unified strategy, reshaping how the United States engages on illegal immigration across our hemisphere.

Stanford’s work has been credited with reducing illegal immigration flows during key periods, strengthening interagency coordination, and transforming the government’s ability to share reliable, credible, and timely information on U.S. immigration policy. "I feel deeply honored to receive the Ameri Prize for Innovation in Public Diplomacy,” said Stanford. “In responding to illegal immigration, I drew on every tool in the toolbox—media outreach, digital platforms, partnerships, and creative campaigns—and saw our messages gain traction with government officials, journalists, and communities alike. This recognition affirms that when we apply public diplomacy strategically, we can use it as a powerful tool to address some of the world’s most entrenched and difficult challenges."

Stanford joins an exceptional group of past Ameri Prize recipients, including Morgan O’Brien, honored for transforming global visa communications; Alexander Hunt, recognized for integrating AI into the State Department’s public diplomacy workflows; Alys Spensley, awarded for her pioneering social and digital analytics work in Beijing; and Gretchen Franke and Chad Houghton, who developed an AI-based tool to counter propaganda in Poland.

About the USC Center on Public Diplomacy

Established in 2003 at the University of Southern California, the USC Center on Public Diplomacy is a research, analysis and professional training organization dedicated to furthering the study and discipline of public diplomacy—the practice of engaging with foreign audiences to strengthen ties, build trust, and promote cooperation.  Since its inception, CPD has become an ambitious and productive leader in the public diplomacy research and scholarship community and plays host to robust discussions about the future of public diplomacy. To learn more about CPD, please visit USCPublicDiplomacy.org.

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Photo (L-R): Goli Ameri, Barry Sanders, Lloyd Stanford, Andrea Stanford, Steven Corey-Bey, Jon E. Piechowski, Kerri Hannan, Julie Duhaut-Bedos, Marie Royce, Glenn Osaki