Chris Wurst assumed the roles of Senior Advisor for Innovation and Director of the ECA Collaboratory in August 2017. Chris is a Minnesotan and joined the United States Foreign Service in 2002. Before leading the Collaboratory he was Public Affairs Officer in Milan, Italy; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Lusaka, Zambia; Deputy Public Affairs Officer in Chennai, India; and Vice Consul in Guatemala City, Guatemala. He also spent time in Islamabad, Pakistan, giving public affairs assistance to the American Mission following the 2005 earthquake disaster. Chris has been awarded one Superior Honor and numerous Meritorious Honor Awards since joining the Foreign Service. In 2007, while in Lusaka, he received the worldwide Public Affairs Award from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In 2012, he was nominated as Cultural Expat of the year by Slovenian Times magazine. Chris holds a Master’s degree in Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and History from the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. He also studied literature at Birmingham University in England.