Public diplomacy expert Shawn Powers joins BBG as Senior Advisor

via BBG by email; see also bbg.gov, July 26, 2018

Powers image from BBG email cited above

Dr. Shawn Powers, Ph.D., former Executive Director of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis] (ACPD), joined the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) as Senior Advisor on July 23, 2018. Reporting to the BBG Chief Strategy Officer, Powers is focusing on strategic planning, innovation, research and evaluation, and policy coordination for the BBG, as well as positioning the agency within the broader U.S. government and with key stakeholders.

"Shawn brings a depth of knowledge and experience that has proven invaluable in the public diplomacy arena, and his understanding of the importance of U.S. international media is an indispensable part of our standing on the world stage," said Haroon Ullah, BBG Chief Strategy Officer. "My team and I look forward to working with him and benefiting from his expertise."

Powers most recently served as the Executive Director of the ACPD, a body authorized by Congress to oversee and appraise U.S. Government activities that intend to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics. He led the Commission's efforts to understand and utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities in the strategic communication space and helped forge a research and learning agenda and culture among public diplomacy practitioners. Previously Powers worked on the Commission's 2014 report, "Data Driven Public Diplomacy," when he led a team in assessing the BBG's research and evaluation work.

Powers is an award-winning author who brings more than a decade of experience working at the intersection of research, public diplomacy, development, technology, national security, and academia. He has a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. He is currently an Associate Professor on leave from Georgia State University, where he launched its Center for Global Information Studies, and has held fellowships at the London School of Economics, Oxford University, University of Pennsylvania, and Central European University.

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The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent federal agency, supervising all U.S. government-supported, civilian international media, whose mission is to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. BBG networks include the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Marti), Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa). BBG programming has a measured audience of 278 million in more than 100 countries and in 58 languages.