Katherine Brown
Adjunct Professorial Lecturer
School of International Service
Degrees
Ph.D. in Communications, Columbia University; M.Phil. in Communications, Columbia University; M.A. in Communications, Columbia University; B.A. in International Affairs, The George Washington University
Bio
Katherine Brown is the Executive Director of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, a body authorized by Congress to oversee and promote U.S. Government activities that intend to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics. She has a Ph.D. in communications from Columbia University and more than a decade of experience working at the nexus of national security, development, and global media.
Dr. Brown began her career at The White House under the William J. Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations; under Clinton, she served as a Presidential Scheduling Coordinator from 2000-2001; under Bush, she served as an assistant to the National Security Advisor and the Deputy National Security Advisor from 2002-2003. From 2003-2004, she served as a communications advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, for which she was awarded a State Department Superior Honor Award. While serving as a communications manager with the San Francisco-based NGO, The Asia Foundation, from 2005-2009, Katherine worked throughout Asia and focused much of her time on media-related issues in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. In 2010, she served as a Professional Staff Member at the Committee on Foreign Affairs at the U.S. House of Representatives with responsibility for public diplomacy and international broadcasting oversight. The following year, she joined the original editorial staff for Bloomberg View, the opinion platform for Bloomberg News.
As a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia from 2007-2013, Katherine researched the intersection of international relations and the news media, with a particular focus on public diplomacy and journalism development in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She also served as an instructor of Conceptual Foundations of International Politics at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) for three years, and held teaching and research fellowships at the Journalism School.
Katherine has a B.A. in international affairs from The George Washington University and earned her M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. in communications from Columbia. She is a Truman National Security Project Fellow and a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations.
