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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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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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. 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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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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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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www.earthinfohub.org

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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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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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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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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