Paula Dobriansky

Over more than 30 years, Dobriansky has served in high level, Senate confirmed, government positions. She worked at the National Security Council, the White House (1980-1987) on U.S. policy toward all East European countries and contributed to the crafting of U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union. As Director of European and Soviet Affairs in the Reagan Administration, she played a key role in the formulation of U.S. political and economic policies toward Poland, matters regarding the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe and Soviet human rights issues.

From 1987-1990, Dobriansky was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs and served in that capacity in both the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations. In 1990, she was named Deputy Head of the U.S. Delegation to the 1990 Copenhagen Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. That same year, she was appointed Associate Director (Assistant Secretary rank) of the Bureau of Policy and Programs at the United States Information Agency (USIA). And, in 1997, former President Bill Clinton appointed her to serve as a Republican Commissioner on the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (1997-2001), a Senate-confirmed Commission.

In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Dobriansky as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, a position for which she was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In that position (2001-2009), she presided over a wide range of areas including human rights, international narcotics and law enforcement, refugees, oceans, environment, science, health, international women's issues and was the head of delegation and lead negotiator on U.S. climate change policy. She is credited with having established and led the U.S.-India, U.S.-China, and U.S.-Brazil Global Issues Fora. She was also a staunch advocate of public-private partnerships and was a Founder of the U.S. Afghan Women's Council. In 2007, while serving as Under Secretary, she became the President's Envoy on Northern Ireland, for which she received the Secretary of State's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, for her contribution to the historic devolution of power in Belfast.

After leaving government service in 2009, Dobriansky became a Senior Fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs[4] and later became part of the Center's "Future of Diplomacy" Project.

In January 2010, Dobriansky was appointed Distinguished National Security Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy, where she taught senior level foreign policy courses for three years. During this period, she was also a Senior Advisor at the Bipartisan Policy Center and was co-chair of the Center's Commission on Stabilizing Fragile States. And from 2010-2012, Dobriansky was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Thomson Reuters, responsible for designing and implementing a corporate approach for engagement in Washington DC and key capitals around the globe.

Earlier from 1997-2001, Dobriansky 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.