The United States Department of State (DOS),or simply the State Department,is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nations,its primary duties are advising the U.S. president on international relations,administering diplomatic missions,negotiating international treaties and agreements,and representing the U.S. at the United Nations. The department is headquartered in the Harry S Truman Building,a few blocks from the White House,in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington,D.C.;"Foggy Bottom" is thus sometimes used as a metonym.
The University of Southern California is a private research university in Los Angeles,California,United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert Maclay Widney,it is the oldest private research university in California,and has an enrollment of more than 49,000 students.
Leroy "Roy" F. Aarons was an American journalist,editor,author,playwright,founder of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA),and founding member of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. In 2005 he was inducted into the NLGJA Hall of Fame.
Willow Bay is an American television journalist,editor,author,and former model. In 2017,she became dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism having earlier served as director of USC Annenberg School of Journalism. She was previously a senior editor for the Huffington Post and a special correspondent for Bloomberg Television.
The University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy is an academic research,teaching and training center created by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the USC Dornsife College of Letters,Arts and Sciences' School of International Relations at University of Southern California.
The Annenberg School for Communication is the communication school at the University of Pennsylvania. The school was established in 1958 by Wharton School alum Walter Annenberg as the Annenberg School of Communications. The name was changed to its current title in 1990.
Nicholas J. Cull is a historian and professor in the Master's in Public Diplomacy program at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. He was the founding director of this program and ran it from 2005 to 2019.
Murray Fromson was a CBS correspondent and professor emeritus at University of Southern California's School of Journalism,and Center on Public Diplomacy. He was educated in the Los Angeles Unified School District,including Belmont High School in Downtown Los Angeles.
Edward Lifson is an American journalist,architecture critic,and academic. He was the Director of Communications for the Pritzker Architecture Prize. He was also a domestic,foreign and war correspondent and bureau chief for NPR National Public Radio;and he created and hosted a radio show in Chicago called "Hello Beautiful!" to explore and tell stories of urban issues,architecture and design. Lifson is an Adjunct Instructor in the Media Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. For NPR,in the U.S. Lifson covered urban affairs,politics,economics,labor and arts and culture. In 1996,he established the National Public Radio Bureau in Berlin,Germany. In Europe,he covered the rebuilding of Berlin as a city and a national capital,European Union,post-Cold War politics,NATO,the launch of the euro,immigration issues,and Central Europe’s transition to democracy and capitalism. As a war correspondent,he reported extensively for NPR from Serbia,Kosovo,Montenegro and Macedonia before and during the war in Kosovo. In addition to Berlin,he has lived for many years in Paris,Florence,Italy and in England. Lifson was the interim Director of the Shanghai-based American Academy in China,an urban design think tank and studio.
Ernest James Wilson III is an American scholar. Wilson was the Walter Annenberg Chair in Communication,and Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (USC),Los Angeles,California from 2007 to 2017. He stepped down as dean in June 2017 and was succeeded by Willow Bay. Dr. Wilson is the founder of USC Annenberg's Center for Third Space Thinking,which is devoted to research,teaching and executive education on soft skills in the digital age. Through the center,Dr. Wilson's most recent research focuses on critical workforce competencies and talent and skills development in the 21st century. As a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University,he currently is writing a book on utilizing competencies via the framework of Third Space Thinking.
Jonathan Aronson is professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication &Journalism at the University of Southern California as well as professor of international relations at USC.
Geoffrey Cowan is an American lawyer,professor,author,and non-profit executive. He is a University Professor at the University of Southern California,where he holds the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership and directs the Annenberg School's Center on Communication Leadership &Policy. In 2010,Cowan was named president of The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands,a position he held until July 2016. In this role,Cowan was commissioned with the task of turning the 200-acre estate of Ambassador Walter Annenberg and his wife Leonore into "a venue for important retreats for top government officials and leaders in the fields of law,education,philanthropy,the arts,culture,science and medicine." Since Sunnylands reopened in 2012,Cowan has helped to arrange a series of meetings and retreats there. In 2013–14,President Barack Obama convened bilateral meetings at Sunnylands with President Xi Jinping of China and with King Abdullah II of Jordan. In 2016,President Obama hosted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the site,where they released the Sunnylands Declaration. Prior to his time at Sunnylands,Cowan was appointed by President Bill Clinton as Director of Voice of America.
Amanda Bennett is an American journalist and author,who is the current CEO of U.S. Agency for Global Media. She was the director of Voice of America from 2016 to 2020. She formerly edited The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Lexington Herald-Leader. Bennett is also the author of six nonfiction books.
Jerrold D. Green is an American academician who is the Global Advisor to Cedars-Sinai,a Los Angeles based healthcare organization,and a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations. Prior to this he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Council on International Policy and a Research Professor of Communication,Business,and International Relations at the University of Southern California. Green was a Partner at Best Associates in Dallas,Texas. He also occupied senior management positions at the RAND Corporation.
Peter Monge is professor of communication in the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism and professor of management and organization in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Monge studies communication and knowledge networks,ecological theories,and organizational change processes.
Bob Gold &Associates is an independent Southern California-based publication relations agency founded by Bob Gold in 1997. The company has offices in New York City,Chicago and Southern California. Bob Gold &Associates is also a co-founder of the Whiteoaks International Network,serving organizations around the world with 15 partnering agencies in 5 continents.
Carol Marbin Miller is a senior investigative reporter at The Miami Herald. Marbin Miller began covering social welfare programs at the St. Petersburg Times in the 1990s. She joined The Miami Herald in 2000 and has reported extensively on Florida's services to children as well as the state's juvenile justice system,programs for people with disabilities,mental health and elder care.
Michael Parks was an American journalist,editor,and educator who wrote on various political events around the world throughout his career. He served as editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1997 to 2000. He won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting award in 1987 for his reports about the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. He also taught at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and served several stints as its director.
Cynthia "Cinny" Clare Kennard is an American business and nonprofit executive,author and former broadcast journalist. She is the executive director of The Annenberg Foundation,based in Los Angeles,and Annenberg PetSpace.
Jill Leovy is an American journalist and nonfiction writer. She is best known for the non-fiction book Ghettoside:A True Story of Murder in America,her 2015 New York Times best-seller about homicide in Los Angeles. Leovy argues in Ghettoside that more effort must be given to arresting and incarcerating perpetrators of inner-city murders,because "impunity for the murder of black men remained America’s great,though mostly invisible,race problem."
