A former Executive Director of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, Dr. Vivian S. Walker is Co-President of the Public Diplomacy Council of America, Practitioner in Residence at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Adjunct Professor in GU’s MSFS degree program, co-editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy, and Faculty Fellow at USC’s Center on Public Diplomacy. Previously, she taught at the Central European University, the National War College, and the National Defense College of the UAE.
A retired senior Foreign Service Officer, she twice served as a Deputy Chief of Mission (Croatia and Armenia), twice as an Office Director (Southeastern European Affairs and the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy for Europe), a Public Affairs Officer (Kazakhstan, with coverage of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan), a Cultural Affairs officer (Tunisia) and an Information Officer (Haiti).
Other assignments include a two-year professorship in strategic studies at the National War College, a yearlong assignment as the State Department’s Regional Border Coordinator in Afghanistan, and a fellowship on the U.S. Atlantic Council, where she led the first interagency discussion on public diplomacy in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Dr. Walker publishes and lectures extensively on the practice of public diplomacy in complex information environments. She has a PhD in English from the University of Chicago.
