Ms. Collins brings over 20 years of experience in communications, advocacy, and development, having served in several UN offices including New York, Geneva, Bangkok, and Vienna. She has worked as a gender focal point for the Department of Global Communications (DGC) and has experience with issues related to youth engagement, sustainable development, human rights, and peacebuilding.

Prior to joining the UN, Ms. Collins was an award-winning television and radio producer in New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Berlin, Türkiye and Iraq. She has also worked as a strategic partner manager for news partnerships at Facebook, where she focused on news integrity, news literacy, and building sustainable revenue models for media organizations.

Ms. Collins holds a Master of Science degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a degree in political science and mass communications from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Mr. Stéphane Dujarric is the Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General Mr. António Guterres. He was appointed as Spokesperson in February 2014 by then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Stéphane had previously served as Spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 2005 to 2006 and then Deputy Communications Director for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from 2006 to 2007.

Prior to his current appointment, Stéphane was Director of News and Media for the United Nations Department of Global Communications, a position that he held from 2011 to 2014. In that role, he oversaw all of the UN’s television, radio and photo operations, and coordinated the work of the main United Nations news sites, operating in eight languages. His division was responsible for the international press corps, as well as coverage of official UN meetings, producing written coverage for the media, delegations and the general public. Prior to this assignment, Stéphane was Director of Communications for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Stéphane was named Chief Spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2005, after joining the United Nations in 2000 as an Associate Spokesman. Following Annan’s departure, Stéphane worked as Deputy Communications Director for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Stéphane worked for ABC News television for close to ten years in various capacities in the network’s New York City, London and Paris news bureaus. He traveled extensively on assignment to cover major stories throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Born in France, Dujarric has been living in the United States for the most part of the last 40 years. He is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and an alumnus of the CPD Summer Institute in Public Diplomacy.

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Carlotta Aiello is the Brand Lead at UN Women Headquarters in New York, where she leads the organization’s global brand strategy and visual identity. With nearly 20 years of experience across the UN system, she specializes in branding, publishing, and strategic communications, helping translate complex policy and development issues into compelling narratives and impactful brand experiences.

At UN Women, Carlotta led the organization’s recent rebranding as the UN entity “For All Women and Girls,” helping shape the corporate strategy to communicate as “One Brand. One Voice. For All Women and Girls.” She also spearheaded the development and launch of UN Women’s first-ever Brand Portal, a centralized resource for brand guidance and visual identity assets.

Prior to joining UN Women, she served as Production Coordinator for UNDP’s flagship Human Development Report, overseeing its global production, multilingual publishing, and distribution. Earlier in her career, she was an editor and researcher at CeSPI – Centro Studi di Politica Internazionale in Rome, Italy, contributing to research and training initiatives on international development cooperation and finance for development.

An Italian national, Carlotta holds a Master’s degree in Communication and Media Studies from La Sapienza University of Rome and a Master’s degree in Management of Development Projects from the University of Milan.

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Altug Akin is a Doctor of Communication Sciences focused on exploring potentials of communication for a better world.

As a Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) / Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) expert, he has worked with the WHO, UNICEF and WFP on major humanitarian emergencies and development programs throughout the last ten years.

Dr Akin is a research fellow at Center for Humanitarian Studies at University of Geneva, and a full professor at the Faculty of Communication at Izmir University of Economics. He’s representing Turkey at COST Research Action Network AlertHub, a pan-European academic network on emergency communication focusing on natural hazards and emergencies.

Dr Akin published in top-ranking academic journals such as Journal of Health Communication, International Journal of Communication and Journalism. He completed his doctoral studies in communication at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, and masters’ studies in journalism studies at Stockholm University and in engineering and management information systems at Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.

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Jess Alfonso is a creative communications professional with nearly 20 years of experience in branding, design, and multimedia storytelling. At UNFPA Headquarters in New York, she focuses on global donor visibility and communications, helping translate complex development work into compelling visual stories that engage audiences and strengthen partnerships. Her expertise spans creative strategy, art direction, and multimedia production, with a particular interest in building strong brands, developing creative systems, and helping teams bring ideas to life.

Nathalie Anglès is the Executive Director and co-founder of Residency Unlimited (RU). Founded in 2009, RU is a Brooklyn based non-profit organization that promotes exchange and diversity through its customized residency program and year-round public programs for US based and international artists and curators. A history and political science major, Nathalie is also a graduate from The École du MAGASIN curatorial studies program in Grenoble, (Le Magasin – Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble France).

Her extensive experience in the field of artist residencies in the US and Europe began managing the residency program for US based artists at the Frank Gehry designed American Center in Paris followed by the position of Director of Location One’s International Residency program in New York (2000-2008).

Nathalie worked in a curatorial and administrative capacity in institutions such as École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (ENSBA) and Union centrale des Arts décoratifs (UCAD) in Paris as well as Sotheby’s London in the Impressionist and Modern art department. In 2008, Nathalie was awarded the French government distinction Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

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Dr. Phillip Arceneaux is an Associate Professor of Strategic Communication at Miami University of Ohio. His research, teaching, and public engagement sit at the intersection of public relations, political communication, and international affairs.

Dr. Arceneaux’s scholarship examines how communication shapes public opinion, organizational reputation, and strategic relationships in foreign policy and national security contexts. He focuses on the use of organizational storytelling to curate strategic narratives in public diplomacy, emphasizing how governments and international organizations use strategic communication to shape the political agenda, manage stakeholder perceptions, build trust, and advance policy objectives and outcomes. 

As a consultant, Dr. Arceneaux has advised on public diplomacy and public affairs initiatives across the U.S. diplomatic, defense, and intelligence communities. He has also served in a research capacity with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

At Miami, Dr. Arceneaux serves as Director of the Diplomacy Lab, a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of State that connects students and faculty with real-world diplomatic and policy challenges. Through collaboration with U.S. embassies and consulates, he oversees experiential learning initiatives that expose students to public policy research and careers in diplomacy, security, and international communication. 

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Michael Bierut has been a graphic designer for nearly fifty years. After graduating with highest honors from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning in 1980, his first job was in the office of Lella and Massimo Vignelli. He worked there for a decade, ultimately as Vice President for Graphic Design.

In 1990, he became a partner in the New York office of Pentagram. His clients have ranged from Mastercard, Slack, Verizon, Benetton and Disney, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Poetry Foundation, MIT Media Lab, Saks Fifth Avenue and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. As a volunteer to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, he designed the “H” logo that became ubiquitous during her presidential run, and the monumental typographic inscription he created for the Obama Presidential Center will crown the complex’s central tower. Beginning in October 2024, he assumed an advisory role at Pentagram, serving as consultant to his partners on selected projects and overall business strategy.

Michael was elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale in 1989, installed in the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 2003, and awarded the profession’s highest honor, the AIGA Medal, in 2006. In 2008, he was named winner in the Design Mind category of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards. In 2016, he was the Henry Wolf Resident in Graphic Design at the American Academy in Rome. He has been lecturer at the Yale School of Management and senior critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art. For the latter class, he created the “100 Days Project,” an exercise involving the daily repetition of a single creative act which is now practiced worldwide. His appearance in the 2007 documentary Helvetica (“Any questions? Of course not!”) is considered by many the movie’s funniest moment.

Michael is co-editor of the five-volume series Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design and co-founded Design Observer, an online site for design and cultural criticism. His books, which include 79 Short Essays on Design (2007), How to use graphic design to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry and (every once in a while) change the world (2015 and 2021) and Now You See It and Other Essays on Design (2017), have been translated into German, French, Korean, Chinese, Polish and Russian.

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Sophie Boudre has been involved in public information and journalism for over two decades. She began her career in 2000 as a journalist and trainer with Radio France Internationale, UN Radio and Agence France Presse. Her passion for communications and peacebuilding led her to the field, where she supported UN Peacekeeping missions in Timor-Leste (2002, 2007–2008) and Haiti (2010–2017).

As a radio trainer and humanitarian reporting advisor with Internews in post-tsunami Aceh, Indonesia (2005–2006) and Eastern Chad (2009–2010), Sophie trained hundreds of local journalists on human rights, gender equality, governance and elections, civic education, and social issues — work that continues to inform her approach to inclusive and impactful communications today.

In 2012, Sophie transitioned to public information, advocacy, and outreach within the UN Mission for the Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH), before joining DPO’s Strategic Communications Section at UN Headquarters in 2017. Since then, she has led on crisis communications on reputational issues including sexual exploitation and abuse and strategic communications on the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Since September 2025, she has been leading UN Peacekeeping’s Strategic Communications Section, leading a dedicated team of communications professionals and supporting strategic communications across eleven peace operations.

Ms. Boudre holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of New South Wales, Sydney and in Journalism from the Sorbonne University, Paris as well as a degree in Political Science from Sciences Po Bordeaux.

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Joel P. Christensen (he/his) is provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the Graduate Center where he is also appointed professor of Classics.

Previously, he was professor of classical and early Mediterranean studies at Brandeis University where he also served as senior associate provost for faculty Affairs. He also taught at the University of Texas at San Antonio (2007–2016). At Brandeis, he served as the chair of classical studies, chair of the Brandeis Faculty Senate, and senior associate dean for faculty affairs in the School of Arts and Sciences. He received his B.A .and M.A. from Brandeis (’01) in classics and English and his Ph.D. in classics from New York University (2007), where he also received an Advanced Certificate in Poetics and Theory. During his time at NYU, he took classes at the Graduate Center, particularly enjoying Hardy Hansen’s Greek Prose Composition. He grew up in rural southern Maine and moved to New York City with his wife, Shahnaaz, in June of 2001. Shahnaaz completed a pre-health post-baccalaureate certificate at City College, followed by dental school at Columbia University. Joel and Shahnaaz have three children (Aalia, Iskander, and Layla) and two cats (Mowgli and Hermes).

Joel P. Christensen has been a fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies (2013) and has received the Society for Classical Studies’ Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Collegiate Level (2013). In addition to articles on language, myth and literature in the Homeric epics, he has published a Beginner’s Guide to Homer (One World, 2013) and also a Homer’s Thebes (Center for Hellenic Studies, 2019) with Elton T. E. Barker as well as A Commentary on the Homeric Battle of Frogs and Mice (Bloomsbury, 2018) with Erik Robinson. In 2020, he published The Many-Minded Man: the Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic Cornell University Press and Storylife: On Epic, Language, and Living Things with Yale University Press in 2025. He is currently working on a popular book on Odysseus (Why Odysseus?) and an introduction to the Iliad with his long-term collaborator, Elton Barker.

Brian Collins is a designer, creative director, and educator. He is the founder of COLLINS, a brand and experience design firm based in San Francisco and New York. The firm was named by Forbes as one of the companies transforming the future of brand building.

He was the first graphic designer invited to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He is a board member of the One Club for Creativity, and has been a professor at the School of Visual Arts since 2001. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has received an Honorary Doctorate from the Art Center College of Design. Fast Company named him an American Master of Design in 2005.

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Nicholas J. Cull is originally from the U.K. His BA (International History and Politics) and PhD (History) were both from the University of Leeds. He also studied at Princeton as a Harkness Fellow of the Commonwealth Fund of New York. He taught at Birmingham University and at the University of Leicester where, as one of the U.K.’s youngest full professors, he launched the Center on American Studies in 1997.

Moving to USC in 2005, he was the founding director of the master’s program in public diplomacy and part of the team recognized by the Department of State with the Benjamin Franklin award. From 2004 to 2019, Cull served as president of the International Association for Media and History. He has provided advice and training in public diplomacy to a number of foreign ministries and cultural agencies around the world including those of the U.S., U.K., Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. His many books include Public Diplomacy: Foundations for Global Engagement in the Digital Age (Polity, 2019) and Reputational Security: Refocusing Public Diplomacy for a Dangerous World (Polity, 2024).

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Tessa Dikker is the Spokesperson and Election Officer at the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations. She also leads the Mission’s Public Diplomacy portfolio and was involved from the very beginning in establishing the informal UN Mission-wide Public Diplomacy Network, where she continues to serve as a key point of contact.

Before joining the Permanent Mission, Tessa worked on Public Diplomacy and Cultural Affairs at the Dutch Consulate General in New York. Prior to her diplomatic career, she was an Urban and Cultural Sociologist at the University of Amsterdam, where she explored the ways in which cities, culture, and society intersect.

With a background that bridges diplomacy, public engagement, culture, and urban life, Tessa brings an interdisciplinary perspective to her work connecting people, ideas, and institutions both within and beyond the UN community.

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Patrick is the founder and Creative Director of Ultravirgo, a branding studio dedicated to helping mission-driven organizations expand their impact. For over 20 years, he has led a team of designers and strategists crafting brand communications for clients including the United Nations, Wikimedia Foundation, Parkinson’s Foundation, World Food Programme, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He also serves on the board of Spark Design Professionals, the Steering Committee of ComNet New York, and volunteers as a mentor to early-career designers through AIGA.

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Dr. Jack Durrell is Head of Communications at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR) in New York, where he leads strategic communications, media engagement, publications and multimedia activities. As a member of UNU-CPR’s senior management team, he works with researchers and policy experts to translate evidence and complex ideas into accessible, targeted communications for policymakers and wider audiences.

Jack has almost 20 years of experience in strategic communications and research across the international development sector. Prior to joining UNU-CPR, he advised international organizations and research institutions, including CGIAR, GIZ and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, on communications strategy, audience engagement and research dissemination. He has lived and worked across Asia, the Middle East and Africa and holds a doctorate in Geography from King’s College London.

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Paloma Escudero is currently UN Women Director for the Division for Global Communication & Advocacy based in NY HQ. Previously she led UNICEF Global Division for Communication and Advocacy at NYHQ for a decade (2013-2023), followed by her appointment as UNICEF Global Advocate for Children and Climate Change. She joined UNICEF team on 2007 as the Executive Director of UNICEF Spain based in Madrid. Escudero started her professional career at the Marketing Division of Procter & Gamble Spain, moving to the non-profit sector first as Advocacy Director for OXFAM-INTERMON Spain, followed by her appointment as Director for the Oxfam International Advocacy Office to the EU based in Brussels (Belgium).
Paloma Escudero has Spanish nationality and lives in New York with her husband and her three sons.

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Stéphanie Fillion is the editor-in-chief of Envoy, a magazine focused on the United Nations, diplomacy, and global affairs. An award-winning UN correspondent from Canada, based in New York, she has reported for outlets including Foreign Policy, Forbes, CNN and Radio-Canada.

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Aleksandra “Saša” Gorišek is a strategic communications leader with over 25 years of international experience across the United Nations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, journalism and academia. She currently leads the Civil Society and Academic Impact portfolio at the United Nations Department of Global Communications in New York and serves as the department’s focal point on multilingualism, advancing inclusive and accessible communications.

Previously, Saša was Director of Communications at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva, managing crisis communications, advocacy and marketing, digital engagement and global storytelling initiatives, including the People in the Red Vest podcast.

Earlier in her career, Saša held a range of communications roles across the United Nations, including serving as communications adviser to senior leadership at the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN Security Council’s Joint Investigative Mechanism for Syria. As a UNTV producer, she reported from around the world on peace and security, human rights, climate and sustainable development.

Saša began her career as a journalist in her native Slovenia and has also taught communications at university level in Austria and the US.

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Dr. Sozita Goudouna has been recognized for her impactful role in promoting contemporary art and facilitating cultural exchanges between Greece and the global community. In 2022, she received the British Council’s Culture and Creativity Award at the Study UK Alumni Awards. Based in New York, she is a professor and curator.

She is the author of “Beckett’s Breath: Anti-theatricality and the Visual Arts” (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Modernism/Oxford University Press) and co-author of “Mourning the Ends: Collaborative Writing and Performance.” As a visiting professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, she initiated the MA in Breath Studies, focusing on breath in the performing and visual arts. She is editor of the scientific journal “Performance Research” on Breath and Iconologies, as well as ‘On the Mundane.’ Her research has been published in prominent scientific journals.

In 2015, she was selected by RoseLee Goldberg as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Performa Biennial and a postdoctoral fellow at New York University, while working at the Onassis Foundation in New York.

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Dr. Zhao Alexandre Huang is Associate Professor of Communication at Gustave Eiffel University, France, and a Junior Member of the Institut universitaire de France. A member of the DICEN-IDF research laboratory, he specializes in public diplomacy, digital diplomacy, and the geopolitics of international communication, with a particular focus on China and France. His research examines how states and other actors mobilize digital platforms, strategic narratives, and communicative practices to shape legitimacy, reputation, and relationships with international publics.

He is the French principal investigator of « PubDiplo », an international collaborative research project examining France–China public diplomacy and reputation management in the digital era. His work also addresses diaspora communication, transnational influence, and the tensions between dialogue, persuasion, and confrontation in platformized public spheres.

He serves as Chair of the International Communication Association’s Public Diplomacy and International Relations Interest Group, Chair of the International Studies Association’s International Communication Section, and Vice-President of the International Relations Commission of the French Society of Information and Communication Sciences.

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Haiyan Jia is an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and Communication, Cognitive Science Program, and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Lehigh University. Her research examines the relationships among emerging technologies, information, and human behavior.

Her current work focuses particularly on artificial intelligence as an increasingly consequential mediator of how people access, interpret, evaluate, and act upon information. Drawing on human-computer interaction, media psychology, and communication research, she studies human-AI relationships, AI-mediated information and knowledge, trust and credibility, and the social and ethical implications of generative AI. Her research also explores how human-centered approaches to AI can support more equitable information environments, meaningful civic engagement, and community well-being.

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Ian Johnstone is a Professor of International Law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He has been a faculty member since 2000. From 2018 to 2019, he served as Interim Dean. Prior to that from 2013 to 2015, he was the Academic Dean. Before joining Fletcher in 2000, he served in the United Nations’ Executive Office of the Secretary-General. He continues to serve as a regular consultant to the United Nations.

From 2005-2007, he was the lead author and founding editor of the Annual Review of Global Peace Operations. He is currently on the editorial boards of the Canadian Yearbook of International Law and International Organizations Law Review. He has been a Visiting Professor at the New York University School of Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and Jindal Global University, India. He is a Member of the International Advisory Board of the International Peace Institute, New York.

Johnstone, recipient of the James L. Paddock Teaching Award in 2005, teaches courses in international organizations and peace operations. A citizen of Canada, he holds an LL.M degree from Columbia University and JD and B.A. degrees from the University of Toronto.

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Kathryn develops communications strategies for the Better World Campaign and other advocacy teams throughout the United Nations Foundation. Prior to joining BWC, she was a strategic communications consultant for non-profits, NGO’s and corporations.

Kathryn began her career as a journalist. As a producer for ABC News Nightline, she traveled widely throughout the US and the world, covering domestic politics and international affairs. She was awarded five Emmys for her work during this time. She later became CNN’s first female Bureau Chief in Washington, DC, and managed a staff of 300 in the aftermath of 9/11. In 2006, she joined Bloomberg Television in Washington as Bureau Chief, tasked with developing new programming and building the company’s TV presence in the nation’s capital.

Kathryn received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Hampshire. She was awarded a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard during the 1994-95 academic year.

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Aleksandra Kuzmanovic is a digital diplomacy, social media and leadership communication strategist with more than a decade of experience in global health at the World Health Organization (WHO).

In her current role as WHO’s Leadership and Positioning Social Media Manager, she advises Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and senior leadership on digital communication strategies that drive policy change and bridge gaps in global health dialogues.

Ms Kuzmanovic led WHO’s social media response to the COVID-19 pandemic and was the lead anchor of the #AskWHO live social media podcast throughout the pandemic. Since then, she has led WHO’s partnerships with the tech industry and academia, building evidence on the importance of social media communication in ensuring access to credible, timely health information and in driving change in people’s health decision-making.

Currently, Ms Kuzmanovic serves as a commissioner on Nature Medicine’s Commission on Quality Health Information for All, leading a working group on legacy, digital, and social media research.

She holds an MA in Standardization, Social Regulation and Sustainable Development from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and a BE in Quality Management from the University of Belgrade, Serbia.

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Anthony LaFauce is an award winning public relations practitioner who is currently a Managing Director at CLYDE focused on AI integration at an enterprise level. He has more than 24 years of communications experience and is an adjunct at the American University in Washington, DC, where he teaches courses on digital communications and AI.

As an accomplished speaker, he has given guest lectures on AI at multiple universities and think tanks’ closed door events throughout the country. Prior to working in public relations, Anthony was a 2nd Class Petty Officer serving as an Avionics Technician, where he learned advanced electronics and workflow management.

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Emmanuel Kattan is Director of the Alliance Program, an innovative academic joint venture of Columbia University and three major French Higher Education Institutions: École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. He is also a lecturer in the French Department, where he teaches courses on the politics of memory in France and on rebel literature.

He was previously Director of the British Council in New York, where he oversaw academic collaboration programs. He created partnerships with the Henry Luce Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation to launch initiatives connecting higher education institutions across the Atlantic. Before joining the British Council, Emmanuel was Senior Adviser at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, where he managed strategic communications and engagement with academic communities.

He also held senior positions at the Commonwealth Secretariat and at the Quebec Delegation in London, where he was in charge of academic relations programs. A native of Montreal, Emmanuel studied politics at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and earned a PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is the author of five books: an essay, Penser le devoir de mémoire, on the politics of memory, and four novels.

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Nadia Khammari is a senior specialist in strategic communication, advocacy and partnerships, with experience at United Nations agencies, the African Union Commission and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory. Her work focuses on education, climate adaptation and sustainable development.

She is currently pursuing an Executive Master in Communication at Sciences Po Paris where her research explores how communication within international organisations can strengthen advocacy and influence decisions on climate change adaptation.

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Alexandra Lieben is the Deputy Director of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, an affiliated faculty member at the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law, and a lecturer at the USC Price’s Center on National Defense and Public Safety.

A certified mediator, she teaches conflict resolution, strategic communication, crisis de-escalation, stakeholder engagement, and community development to students and professionals across public sector and nonprofit organizations. Her research interests lie in democratic governance and innovation, subnational diplomacy, digital democracy, and rebuilding public trust and community resilience.

Lieben serves as the President of the Association of Austrian Scientists and Scholars in North America (ASciNA), a networking organization of more than 1400 Austrians living and working in North America; as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the University of Vienna; and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House Association (VATMH), a Berlin-based nonprofit dedicated to fostering transatlantic dialogue between Germany and the United States.

Before academia, she worked as a rock- and jazz concert promoter and in film production in Europe and the U.S.

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Giorgia Lupi is an information designer and Partner at Pentagram in New York.
She grew up in Modena, Italy, earned a master’s in Architecture and a PhD in Design at Politecnico di Milano, co-founded the data-driven design firm Accurat in 2011, and joined Pentagram in 2019.

Her work centers on Data Humanism, the focus of her 2017 TED Talk and a 2024 follow-up on long COVID. Notable projects include the collaborative Dear Data series (now in MoMA’s permanent collection), a site-specific MoMA commission, and the 2024 New York Times visual Op-Ed “1,374 Days: My life with long COVID,” which won the Compasso d’Oro in 2025.

She is co-author of Dear Data, Observe, Collect, Draw, This is Me and Only Me, and Speak Data, and created the embroidered Book of Life for the Moleskine Foundation. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Forbes, and a Roku documentary.

Among her honors: Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” (2018), MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, World Economic Forum Global Future Council member, Royal Society of Arts Fellow, National Geographic Explorer, 2022 National Design Award for Communication Design (Cooper Hewitt), honorary degree from MICA, and membership in Alliance Graphique Internationale (2024).

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Colum Lynch is an award-winning reporter and Senior Global Reporter for Devex. He covers the intersection of development, diplomacy, and humanitarian relief at the United Nations and beyond. Prior to Devex, Colum reported on foreign policy and national security for Foreign Policy Magazine and the Washington Post.

Colum was awarded the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital reporting for his blog Turtle Bay. He has also won an award for groundbreaking reporting on the U.N.’s failure to protect civilians in Darfur.

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Debbie Millman has been named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, “one of the most influential designers working today” by Graphic Design USA, and a “woman of influence” by Success Magazine. She works at the intersection of design, storytelling, and cultural commentary.

She is the founder and host of Design Matters, one of the world’s first and longest-running podcasts. Over two decades she has interviewed more than 700 creative leaders; the show has won a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, multiple Webbys, and been named an Apple Podcasts “All-Time Favorite” three times.

Millman is the author of eight books, including the interview collections How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer, Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits, and Why Design Matters, plus the recent Love Letter to a Garden (2025). She is co-owner and Editorial Director of PrintMag.com and, with her wife Roxane Gay, acquired TheRumpus.net in 2025.

In 2010 she co-founded the first graduate branding program at the School of Visual Arts, now in its 16th year. She previously spent two decades as President of Sterling Brands, growing it into a global consultancy and leading work for clients including Burger King, Hershey’s, Tropicana, Star Wars, and the No More campaign.

A past president of AIGA (one of only five women in the role in its history) and recipient of its 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award, she has delivered a top TED Talk and spoken widely at major festivals and universities. She is an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, serves on several boards (including the Joyful Heart Foundation and Canva’s design advisory board), and has designed projects ranging from a permanent installation at the Museum of Broadway to the vault plate for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.

She lives in Manhattan and Los Angeles with her wife, two cats, and a charismatic dog.

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David Ohana is Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at the United Nations Foundation where he leads global communication and engagement strategy. He has worked in advertising, production, branding and social impact for more than two decades, harnessing the power of some of the world’s most influential individuals and organizations – from Beyoncé to Ban Ki-moon — to reach billions, raise millions, and help change attitudes.

He is a globally experienced marketing and strategic communications leader who has led impactful partnerships and campaigns across the United Nations and private sector. Formally a creative with Saatchi & Saatchi, David joined the UN in 2008.

As Chief of Brand Building at UNICEF, David managed UNICEF’s Brand, Campaigns, Events and Goodwill Ambassador teams, along with the global rebranding of the organization.

Prior to this, David worked as the content producer for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and as Head of Film and Special Projects for the UN’s humanitarian arm, OCHA, producing content around the world from North Korea, to Niger, to the Polar Ice Rim. He has produced and directed path-breaking advocacy, awareness and fundraising projects with influencers including Charlize Theron, George Clooney, Shakira, David Guetta, Hugh Jackman and Beyoncé (their collaboration for World Humanitarian Day reaching over a billion people in 2012).

Most recently, as Global Head of Marketing, Brands & Campaigns for Minderoo Foundation, David wrote and produced Molly’s TED Talk on childhood brain development, delivered by a 7-year-old, which become the most viewed TED Talk in the world in 2021.

David has received over two dozen international film and advertising creativity and effectiveness awards, including Cannes Lions, One Show and consecutive MTV Music Video Award nominations. At age 24, he was named Young Australian of the Year for Community Service by Prime-Minister John Howard and awarded a Centenary Medal for his cause-based communications work in Timor-Leste.

He is a guest lecturer at NYU and has been interviewed on CNN, The Today Show and China Global on the work of UNICEF and the United Nations.

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Natalia Pasternak is a Brazilian award-winning science writer and communicator. She was listed by BBC as the 100 most influential women of 2021, at the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential jews in the world in 2022, she won the Balles Prize for the promotion of critical thinking in 2022.

She is currently a Lecturer at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIPA), at Columbia University, where she co-directs a minor in science communication and policy. She also serves at the Strategic Advisory Group on Vaccine-Preventable Diseases of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO-WHO), and at the Advisory Board of the Fleming Institute (UK), and is the curator of the science book series What Science Says, with Columbia University Press.

She is President of the Brazilian NGO Instituto Questão de Ciencia, a non-profit for the promotion of science-based public policies.

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Brigitte Perrin is a Swiss strategic communication expert, journalist and former Chief of Strategic Communications at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Throughout her career across the United Nations, academia (University of Geneva) and public broadcasting (RTS), she has led communication, branding and digital transformation initiatives on climate, weather and environmental issues, helping international organizations build trust through clear, science-based communication.

At WMO, she contributed to the United Nations’ Information Integrity Initiative, and created the multi-agency communication task force supporting the Early Warnings for All initiative, with a focus on strengthening the visibility and coherence of trusted scientific information across organizations.

She is the founder of the Earth Info Hub, an independent AI-powered public good initiative that addresses the fragmentation of climate and environmental knowledge across institutions. Her work explores how AI can strengthen information integrity, reinforce trust in authoritative science, and make reliable knowledge more accessible and actionable for communicators, journalists and decision-makers.

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Adam Peruta is an Associate Professor, the Dean’s Fellow in AI, and the Program Director of the Advanced Media Management M.S. program at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. His work focuses on helping media and communications professionals understand, evaluate, and integrate generative AI into their organizations and everyday workflows.

Peruta has designed and delivered AI workshops, executive education programs, and presentations for organizations including Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, the BBC, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps, United Way, and Advance Local. He has also spoken about AI, communications, media, creativity, trust, and the future of work at universities and professional events internationally, including a TEDx Syracuse University talk on trust in an age of synthetic content.

At Newhouse, Peruta leads AI-focused curriculum development, training, research, and strategic initiatives. He has also partnered with Ipsos and other industry organizations on research and thought-leadership initiatives examining how generative AI is reshaping communications, media, marketing, and the future of work.

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Wolfgang Petritsch is the President of the Austrian Institute of International Affairs and of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation as well as Chair of the Herbert C. Kelman Institute for Interactive Conflict Transformation, Vienna-Jerusalem. In 2016 Wolfgang was a visiting professor at the universities of Vienna and UC Berkeley; 2013/14 he was the Joseph A. Schumpeter Fellow at Harvard University where he conducted research on humanitarian intervention. Wolfgang received his PhD in Southeastern European history from the University of Vienna. He was a post-Doc Fulbright scholar at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

From 1977 to 1983, Wolfgang was press secretary and deputy chief of cabinet, respectively, to Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky of Austria. In the 1980s, he was director of the Austrian Press and Information Service in New York and diplomatic Councilor at his country’s UN Mission. From 1993 to 1995, Wolfgang was charged by his government with the information campaign for Austria’s accession to the European Union.

In 1998/99, Wolfgang was the European Union’s Special Envoy and Chief Negotiator at the Kosovo peace talks in Rambouillet and Paris. Between 1999 and 2002, he was the International Community’s High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina in charge of the civilian implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords which ended the 1992–95 Bosnian war.

From 2002–2008 he was Austria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, the WTO, and the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva. As president of the UN Mine Ban Treaty from 2004 to 2006, Wolfgang chaired the 2005 Nairobi Summit for a Mine Free World. He co-negotiated the UN Cluster Munitions Ban Treaty 2007/08. From 2008 to 2013, he represented Austria at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Wolfgang has extensively published in domestic and international media. He is the author and editor of more than a dozen books, with an emphasis on the post-conflict region of Southeastern Europe, the EU and on humanitarian intervention. Wolfgang is i.a. the recipient of the European Award for Human Rights, Strasbourg 2007.

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Daniel Prada Jiménez de Cisneros is Deputy Head for Coordination, Press and Information at the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations in New York. He works on EU coordination at the UN, political reporting, strategic communications and information integrity, and advises senior EU officials on multilateral affairs.

He has more than 15 years of experience in international affairs, including extensive work at the United Nations and within the European Union. At the EU Delegation, his responsibilities include UN General Assembly files, communications, including information integrity, and EU coordination on a range of multilateral issues. He also serves as the Delegation’s focal point for UN elections and has coordinated work on major General Assembly processes.

Before joining the EU Delegation, Daniel worked for Spain’s foreign service in New York and Brussels. He served as spokesperson and communications lead at Spain’s Mission to the United Nations and at Spain’s Permanent Representation to the European Union, where he worked on media relations, public diplomacy, digital communications and EU policy.

An economist by training, Daniel has a particular interest in the changing global information environment and its implications for diplomacy and multilateral cooperation. He speaks Spanish, English and French.

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Dr. David Schroeder, B.M.E. University of Northern Iowa, M.M. New England Conservatory, D.A., New York University is the past Chair of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at NYU Steinhardt. As the former Director of Jazz Studies at MPAP over the 23 years, he is a jazz musician, professor or jazz historian and theory, and author of the books From The Minds of Jazz Musicians: Conversations with the Creative and Inspired, Vol. I & II.

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Courtney B. Smith joined the faculty of the School of Diplomacy and International Relations in 1999. He was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in 2005, at which time he also became an associate dean of the School. He served as Acting Dean from August 2019 to March 2022, when he was appointed Dean. His areas of study include international organizations, United Nations studies and peace studies.

Dr. Smith has interviewed over one hundred United Nations delegates and staff members for his research on the organization and its members. His book, Politics and Process at the United Nations: The Global Dance, was published by Lynne Rienner in 2006. Additional research on the organization’s political process has been published in the journals Global Governance, the International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior, and in the International Journal of Peace Studies, as well as in edited volumes with Lexington Books, Edward Elgar Publishers, and SAGE Publications. He has also published on the relationship between the United Nations and its leading member, the United States, in articles for International Studies Perspectives and White House Studies and in an essay for the United Nations Association of the USA’s A Global Agenda.

Other UN-related research includes an article on Security Council working methods for Global Governance, a book chapter on Security Council reform, a review article on the UN Secretary-General for International Politics, two book chapters on Kofi Annan’s leadership as Secretary-General, an interview with Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson for The Interdependent, a book review on the UN’s role in peace and security for International Affairs, an article on the United Nations Dialogue Among Civilizations for Peace and Change, and a paper on UN peacekeeping for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).Dr. Smith has also published two articles on active learning about international affairs in the journals International Studies Review and International Studies Perspectives, along with a chapter on academic leadership in the Resource Handbook for Academic Deans.

Dr. Smith has served as a Faculty Consultant for the Secretariat of the United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations and serves as the main representative for the School of Diplomacy’s NGO affiliation with the UN Department of Global Communications and for Seton Hall’s consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. He is President of the Academic Council on the United Nations System, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an Honorary Fellow with the Foreign Policy Association. He developed and directs the School’s United Nations Intensive Summer Study Program, which brings an international group of students to UN Headquarters for a one-week immersion program. In addition, he is faculty advisor to the Seton Hall Model United Nations Association and the School’s student-run international newspaper, the Diplomatic Envoy.

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Dr. Sandra Poni Tombe is Executive Director of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) and Assistant Professor of the Practice at Georgetown University, where she teaches courses on international organizations. She has worked at the intersection of academia, policy engagement, and peacebuilding practice for nine years.

Prior to joining ACUNS and Georgetown University, Sandra served as Affiliate Faculty at the Center for Peacemaking Practice at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, where her research focused on migration and displacement as well as the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Global South.

Prior to her time at Mason, Sandra was Research Program Officer on the Learning, Evaluation, and Research team at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). In this role, she led and managed research initiatives and advised thematic and regional teams on research design, methodology and ethics, monitoring and evaluation, and learning. During her time at USIP, Sandra published pieces on multilateral regional organizations and managed Peacemaking in a Turbulent World, a multi-stakeholder and multi-year initiative examining contemporary peacemaking and the evolving roles of the United Nations and the United States with it. She also supported the implementation of the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability in Papua New Guinea, co-leading consultations with Papuan academics, women’s organizations, youth groups, and local government actors. Sandra has extensive teaching experience across several institutions and organizations.

Sandra has taught French at the University of Louisville, conflict and conflict resolution at George Mason University, research methods in international affairs at George Washington University, and English at Great Mission International, Togo. Trained in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, Sandra has published her research on civil war and migration in peer-reviewed journals and has published policy briefs on AI and regional multilateral organizations.

Sandra holds a Ph.D. in Peace and Conflict Resolution from George Mason University, a master’s degree in French from the University of Louisville, and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and French from Berea College.

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Olga Touloumi is an associate professor of architectural history at Bard College. Her research concerns the architecture of bureaucracy, media infrastructures, and feminist practices during the twentieth century architecture. Her first book Assembly by Design: The United Nations and Its Global Interior (University of Minnesota Press, 2024) situates mid-20th century architectural constructions of global governance within debates on media democracies and liberal internationalism. Touloumi has co-edited Sound Modernities, a volume on how acoustics and sound technologies transformed modern architectural culture during the twentieth century; and with Theodora Vardouli Computer Architectures: Constructing the Common Ground, a volume about the exchanges between designers and computational technologists in Europe and North America.

Her writing has appeared at Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Journal of Architecture, Journal of Architectural Education, and the Harvard Design Magazine among others. Her research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Graham Foundation, Canadian Center for Architecture, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and the Alexander Onassis Foundation.

She is member of the editorial board of Architectural Histories. Her current project concerns feminist historiography and social reproduction theory in US architectural practice and pedagogy after World War II.

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Dan Thomas leads communications and strategic events for the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, and the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI).

Before joining the UN Global Compact in 2018, he served as Communications Director for the 70th and 71st Presidents of the UN General Assembly. He joined the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General in 2014 to head up communications, mobilization and outreach for the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Change Team in the lead up to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. A former journalist with Reuters and BBC Television News, Dan joined UNICEF as a multimedia producer in 2000. In 2008, he left the UN to head up media and communications for Gavi – a public-private global health partnership based in Geneva. He has worked in more than 50 countries including Afghanistan, Ethiopia and North Korea and lived in Cardiff, Hong Kong, London, Nairobi, Geneva and New York.

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Jelena Vujic has worked in communications for more than 30 years, first as a radio journalist and then in public diplomacy.

Since 2010 she has been part of the communications team at the EU Delegation to the UN in New York. She creates and produces public diplomacy events, from panel discussions and exhibitions to performances and campaigns, shapes their visual identity, and moderates some of them herself. As focal point for the EU Youth Delegates to the UN, she created and produces Who Rules the World?, a podcast hosted by the delegates. Earlier, she created and produced EU Talks, a YouTube video series on EU and UN issues. She follows the implementation of the Pact for the Future and the Declaration on Future Generations. In 2026, together with colleagues from the African Union Mission, she launched the AU-EU Youth Cluster, a network for young Africans and Europeans grounded in the Pact.

Before New York, she worked on media outreach at the EU Delegation to the United States and was press officer at the UN Office in Belgrade. She began her career in 1989 as a journalist and host at Radio B92, the independent Belgrade station that stood up to the Milošević regime. In 1999 she covered the air strikes as a field producer for France’s TF1.

She studied French language and literature at the University of Belgrade and liberal arts at the University of Maryland, and later trained at Georgetown, NYU and UNITAR. She works in Serbian, English and French.

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Claire Wardle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. She is considered a leader in the field of misinformation, verification, and user-generated content. In 2015, Claire co-founded the non-profit First Draft, a pioneer in innovation, research, and practice in the field of misinformation. She went on to co-found the Information Futures Lab at Brown University’s School of Public Health.

Over the past decade, she has developed an organization-wide training program for the BBC on eyewitness media, verification, and misinformation; led social media policy at UNHCR; been a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School; and served as Research Director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

She has authored a number of articles and reports, including Information Disorder: An Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy for the Council of Europe and A Conceptual Analysis of the Overlaps and Differences between Hate Speech, Misinformation and Disinformation for the United Nations Department of Peace Operations. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Mark Wheeler is an Emeritus Professor of Political Communications at London Metropolitan University. He has written extensively on the media and democratic politics, media and audio-visual policies, communications regulation and political economy, the politics of Hollywood, celebrity politics and digital political communications.

His most recent books are Sorcerer: William Friedkin and the New Hollywood (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2022), Celebrity ‘Outsider’ Politicians in the Digital Realm: Donald Trump’s Online Charismatic Authority (London: Routledge, 2026) and, as the general co-editor (with Petros Iosifidis), The De Gruyter Handbook of Digital Political Communications.(Berlin: De Gruyter, 2026).

He has produced numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and contributed to many edited editions such as ‘Politics, Leadership and Power’ in Katja Lee (ed.) Cultural History of Fame (London: Bloomsbury, 2025), ‘The working class in Schrader’s Blue Collar (1978)’ in Steven J. Michaels (ed.) This Hard Land: Scenes from the American Working Class (Lexington Books, 2025) and ‘The Godfather Doctrine: A Foreign Policy you can’t refuse’ in the International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics. (Bristol: Intellect 2025).

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Kaori Yoshida is a journalist at Nikkei, where she covers the United Nations and the U.S. economy and financial markets. Her work also includes investigative reporting, most recently uncovering a previously unknown link between a fentanyl trafficking network and Japan. She previously contributed to the Financial Times’ Moral Money newsletter, reporting on climate change, sustainable finance and corporate ESG issues. Kaori holds master’s degrees in public policy from Columbia University and the University of Tokyo.

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