Vivian Walker

Dr. Vivian S. Walker is the Executive Director of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. She also serves as Chair of the Foreign Service Journal Editorial Board, an Adjunct Professor in Georgetown University’s MSFS degree program, and a Faculty Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. Previously she taught at the Central European University’s School of Public Policy, the National War College in Washington, D.C., and the National Defense College of the United Arab Emirates.

As a career Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State, she rose to the senior rank of Minister Counselor, serving twice as a Deputy Chief of Mission among other leadership positions. In addition to multiple overseas assignments as a public diplomacy officer, she led the first interagency discussion on public diplomacy in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks for the U.S. Atlantic Council. Dr. Walker has published and lectured extensively on the practice of public diplomacy in complex information environments. She graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and earned her doctorate in English language and literature from the University of Chicago.

U.S. Department of State

The Lessons of 1989: Freedom and Our Future