Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, a foreign policy expert and former diplomat specializing in national security affairs, is a Senior Fellow in the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard University’s JFK Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.  From 2010 to 2012, she was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Thomson Reuters. She was also appointed the Distinguished National Security Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Ambassador Dobriansky served as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs from 2001 to 2009. In February 2007, as the President’s Envoy to Northern Ireland, she received the Secretary of State’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, for her contribution to the historic devolution of power in Belfast. Ambassador Dobriansky has also served as Director of European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Associate Director for Policy and Programs at the United States Information Agency and Deputy Head, U.S. Delegation to the 1990 Copenhagen Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). From 1997 to 2001, she served as Senior Vice President and Director of the Washington Office of the Council on Foreign Relations and was the first George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Ambassador Dobriansky serves on the Naval War College Foundation, Middle East Institute, and the Atlantic Council Board.  She formerly served on the Defense Policy Board, and the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.  She is a Trustee of the Trilateral Commission and on the Advisory Board of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

She has been awarded the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of Poland, Grand Cross of Commander of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, National Order “Star of Romania”, Hungary’s Commander’s Cross Order of Merit, and Ukraine’s Order of Merit. She received a B.S.F.S. summa cum laude in International Politics from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Soviet political/military affairs from Harvard University. She holds three Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters, Honorary Doctorate of Laws and Honorary Doctorate of International Affairs.