Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky

Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky

Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky served as Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs (longest serving in history) from May 2001 to January 2009. In February 2007, she was appointed the President’s Special Envoy to Northern Ireland. Presently, she holds the Distinguished National Security Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy. Other government positions, during her almost 22 years of government service, include serving on the Presidentially-appointed U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and as Director of European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council, the White House. Prior to her Presidential appointments, she was Senior Vice President and Director of the Washington Office of the Council on Foreign Affairs and was the Council's first George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Ambassador Dobriansky received a B.S.F.S. summa cum laude in International Politics from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Soviet political/military affairs from Harvard University. She is a Fulbright-Hays scholar, Ford and Rotary Foundation Fellow, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a recipient of various honors, including the Secretary of State’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, and high level international recognition such as the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of Poland, Poland's Highest Medal of Merit, 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 has also received three Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters and one Honorary Doctorate of Laws.