Awardee Database

Awardees

Britta Bjornlund

The 2025 Ilchman-Richardson award goes to Britta Bjornlund, Chief of the Youth Programs Division, Office of Citizen Exchanges at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).

With calm and compassion, Britta guided the creation and growth of two of the Department’s most impactful regional initiatives in the past decade: the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), with its Mandela Washington Fellows Program, and the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI). Together, these efforts have forged enduring bonds between Americans and over 10,000 young leaders from Africa and Southeast Asia. Amid unprecedented challenges, Britta led her team with resilience and clarity by overseeing the repatriation of 2,000 high school exchange participants during COVID, restarting those programs once the pandemic eased, and addressing the urgent needs of nearly 200 Ukrainian students displaced by Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Dr. Nicholas Cull

Dr. Nicholas Cull (USC) is a 2025 winner for Reputational Security: Refocusing Public Diplomacy for a Dangerous World (2024, Polity Press). A theoretical rethinking of the relationship between realpolitik and “soft power” for the 21st century, supported by a convincing array of historical and current examples. This book argues that, particularly in the context of today’s radically different media and communications environment, national reputation is fundamental to national wellbeing and security. Chapter Seven explores the specific roles played by cultural diplomacy in relation to national reputation, situating these in a sophisticated and useful context and providing examples of a range of successful cultural diplomacy efforts.

Linda Piccirilli

Honorable Mention for the 2025 Ilchman-Richardson award goes to Linda Piccirilli, International Visitor Exchange Specialist, New York Program Branch of the Office of International Visitors at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).

Over her nearly 30-year career with ECA’s Office of International Visitors New York Program Branch (NYPB), she has deftly managed thousands of IVLP projects and shaped the lives of tens of thousands of emerging global leaders. Her diligence, warmth, and creativity are exceeded only by her commitment to strengthening the United States and its most important partnerships. Among her many notable achievements, Linda helped create a large-scale public-private partnership and developed an annual conference to enhance the Edward R. Murrow journalism project. As her nominator notes, Linda is the “heart and soul” of the New York branch.

Dr. Pete Millwood

Dr. Pete Millwood (Univ. of Melbourne) received a 2025 prize for Improbable Diplomats: How Ping-Pong Players, Musicians, and Scientists Remade U.S.-China Relations (2023, Cambridge Univ. Press). This readable, well-documented academic contribution to work on Sino-American relations in the 1970s investigates how cultural diplomacy remade international affairs. Methodologically innovative, it fleshes out the role and status of NGOs, situated between governments and individuals, and makes use of new archival materials and original oral history interviews. The result is a well-rounded transnational history that examines linguistic and cultural points of view, as well as the agency of Chinese individuals and organizations of the time

Shahid Waseem

The 2025 award went to Shahid Waseem, Country Alumni Specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.

Shahid has transformed Mission Pakistan’s alumni outreach, strengthening Established Opinion Leaders and Emerging Voices networks of U.S. exchange alumni across the country.He founded and leads the Pakistan-U.S. Alumni Network (PUAN) that hosts national and international conferences, provides internships for 1,000 alumni, and funds innovative public diplomacy projects. Thanks to Shahid’s leadership, PUAN is one of the largest networks of its kind in the world. Through his vision and leadership, alumni engagement in Pakistan has flourished, showcasing the lasting impact of exchange programs.

Dr. Elisabeth Piller

Dr. Elisabeth Piller (Univ. Freiburg) received the 2025 honorable mention for Selling Weimar: German Public Diplomacy and the United States, 1918-1933 (2021, Franz Steiner Verlag). While much attention has been paid to Cold War US cultural diplomacy efforts toward Germany, very little has focused on Germany’s use of public diplomacy to shape US views in any period. This book notes that, for the Weimar Republic democracy, “the need for systematic public diplomacy was among the central lessons” of WWI, and the country accordingly redesigned and prioritized its cultural outreach, especially toward the U.S. This innovative history of Germany’s interwar “American project” goes beyond economic accounts to explain the puzzlingly rapid reversal in US relations with Germany post-WWI and reveals the roots of German self-representations to this day

Charlène Wantong

The 2025 Honorable Mention went to Charlène Wantong, Public Engagement Specialist, U.S. Embassy in Yaoundé.

In under six years as Emerging Voices Specialist, Charlene has established herself as a visionary leader in educational and cultural diplomacy, combining cross-cultural sensitivity, strategic insight, and a deep commitment to mentorship. She has transformed disparate alumni groups into self-sustaining networks, led Cameroon’s first National Alumni Symposiums, and empowered Mandela and YALI alumni to take leadership roles in youth engagement. Through innovative initiatives like the “ConnectUSA” campaign and creative programming—from poetry slams to culinary diplomacy—Charlene has strengthened U.S. influence while fostering local ownership. As her nominator notes, she embodies the Lois Roth/Gill Jacot-Guillarmod ethos, demonstrating creativity, empathy, and strategic impact in public diplomacy.

Jen Shaneberger

Jen Shaneberger is conducting research for her PhD in International Relations/Comparative Politics with the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. This award will support her research on how political rhetoric impacts migrants’ ability to find and maintain employment in association with Linköping University. She plans to defend her dissertation in November 2024 and submit a chapter for publication in the Journal of International Migration and Integration. Her ultimate career goal is to become a Foreign Service Officer.

Leah Balter

Leah Balter won the 2024 Norway Project Support Award. She will use the award to support her case study on Norway’s overlapping Covid-19 pandemic and Ukrainian refugee crisis responses at the University of Bergen. Leah earned her BA in Human Biology from Stanford University with Honors. After completing her Fulbright, she plans to attend medical school and envisions a career as a physician-activist specializing in refugee health.

Sydney Erlikh

Sydney Erlikh is a PhD candidate in disability studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago. She will use the 2024 Finland Roth-Thomas Award to support her project on the culture and artistic process of dancers with intellectual disability in collaboration with the University of the Arts’ Theatre Academy and the Kaaos Dance Company in Helsinki. Upon her return to the United States, she will directly apply the pedagogical and performance tools she learn to her dissertation and to the inclusive dance group she co-founded out of Access Living in Chicago.

Laura Chang

Laura Chang won the 2024 Project Support Award for Ecuador. She will use the Award to support her project on the Integration of Kichwa and Western Medicines. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Biology with a minor in Latin American Studies and Spanish from Cornell University. Her career goal is to become a medical anthropologist. In Fall 2024, she will undertake a joint MD/PhD program in Anthropology.

Samantha Ruth Brown

Samantha Ruth Brown, a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of Oregon, won the 2024 Project Support Award for Denmark. She will use the award to support her dissertation research project on “Fermented Foods, Fresh Perspectives: Prioritizing Inuit Food Sovereignty in a Changing Arctic”. Samantha’s project will explore how Greenlandic Inuit perceive the potential export of iginneq, fermented seal blubber, and other traditional foods in fine dining restaurants. She aims to unravel how the use (or rejection of the use) of iginneq resists, disrupts, or replicates colonial logics. She will collaborate with Greenlandic Inuit scholars and communities to generate an interactive story map of traditional Inuit fermentation practices and write a series of academic and popular media articles focused on traditional Inuit foodways in her exploration of what has made Inuit communities more food insecure than other Indigenous Peoples.

Dr. Fareed Zakaria

Dr. Fareed Zakaria is the 2024 speaker for the Distinguished Fulbright Lecture. He is the host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a bestselling author. He has been nominated for several Emmys for his television work and has won one, along with the prestigious Peabody Award for his weekly CNN show. Since the debut of his show in 2008, it has featured interviews with several prominent figures including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Emmanuel Macron. Zakaria has authored five highly-regarded New York Times bestselling books: Age of Revolutions (2024), The Post-American World (2008), The Future of Freedom (2003), Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World (2020), and In Defense of a Liberal Education (2015). Before his tenure at CNN, Zakaria served as an editor of Newsweek International, a managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a columnist for Time, an analyst for ABC News, and the host of Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS. Zakaria holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, a doctorate in political science from Harvard University, and many numerous honorary degrees.

Samuel Nevins

Samuel Nevins, in collaboration with Universidad de la República, is investigating the social determinants of mental illness in Uruguayan adolescents through participant data collection.  With the help of the 2024 Project Support Award Uruguay, Sam will be able to provide fiscal incentives for participation in his project, increasing the likelihood of a representative sample of data to better inform psychosocial treatment and policy decisions.

Sam is a recent graduate of Brown University. Following this research, he hopes to pursue a PhD in neuropsychology, with a focus on applying scientific findings to public policy.

Cassandra Alvariño

Cassandra Alvariño will use this award to support her research on Sweden’s bid to join NATO in association with the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg as part of her dual Master’s degree in European Studies and Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She plans to pursue a career in diplomacy as a Foreign Service Officer.

Emily Zhao

Emily Zhao, a graduate of Duke University, is the recipient of the 2024 Project Support Award Australia for her research in flexible smart home electrification. Emily will spend a year analyzing and collecting data, in collaboration with the University of New South Wales to determine network and household incentives and barriers to implementing flexible demand technologies. This supplemental support from the Lois Roth Foundation will allow Emily to expand the scope of her research to emphasize barriers to entry in flexible energy technology adoption within underserved and low-income communities. Emily will explore incentives to promote flexible energy technologies that align with the economic realities of indigenous and low-income households and complement existing lifestyles. 

According to Emily, this valuable research opportunity, exclusive to Australia due to their leadership in solar energy, can provide invaluable insights to help the U.S in overcoming its own solar adoption challenges.

Chelsea Wong

Chelsea Wong is the recipient of the 2024 Robin and Avril Winks Award. A second generation Chinese-New Zealander, she has noticed a limited representation and understanding of Asian New Zealander experiences in the arts and is eager to connect hearts and minds through arts to make a collective change. After nearly ten years working as an arts administrator, lawyer and policy maker, she is pursuing her master’s degree in American studies and Public Humanities at the Rutgers University in New Jersey. She will use the Robin and Avril Winks Award to support her research on Asian diaspora experiences in the arts.

After her Fulbright program, she hopes to return to New Zealand and contribute to the body of critical discussion about diaspora arts in Aotearoa, influence policy and programming in arts and culture, and make systemic change. Her long-term goal is to return to the public sector to devise a national Asian Aotearoa Arts strategy as a partnership project between Creative New Zealand, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, and the Ministry for Ethnic Communities.

Jeff Barrus

Jeff received the 2024 Lois Roth Award honorable mention for, as Deputy Chief of Mission Emily Fleckner lauds, his success working in one of the most restrictive operating environments in the world. As the Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Embassy Bandar Seri Begawan, he is recognized for his implementation of an exceptionally creative ECA Sports Diplomacy program to break a decades-long taboo against women playing soccer in Brunei Darussalam. He is also recognized for exceptional advancement of U.S. foreign policy through other cultural and educational initiatives focused on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, including empowering a severely marginalized LGBTQI+ community and creating the first interfaith Iftar in Brunei’s history. The programs Jeff created and led changed lives for the better in Brunei. 

Sarah Ziebell

The 2024 Lois Roth Award for excellence in cultural diplomacy goes to Sarah Ziebell, Regional Public Engagement Specialist for the Balkans.

Sarah is recognized for her ability to see interesting and unexpected program opportunities and her practical skills to get things done. Colleagues see Sarah as a smart manager, a thoughtful innovator, and a strategic thinker who is, at the same time, capable, creative and collaborative. She has devised ways to address the unique challenges each Balkan country faces, particularly regarding disinformation, such as with the Digital Literacy Forum program. IN addition to managing 60+ American spaces, she launched the first-ever program to engage the Russian war diaspora in Serbia. In 2025, thanks to her leadership, Serbia will inaugurate the first major American Resource Center to open in Europe in a decade.

Alison Moylan

The 2024 Ilchman-Richardson award goes to Alison Moylan, Deputy Director, Office of International Visitors, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), U.S. State Department, Washington, DC. 

To paraphrase from Alison’s nomination by Amy Storrow: In the twenty-five years that Alison has served the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, she has modeled patience, wisdom and generosity in her interactions with tens of thousands of exchange program visitors and hundreds of ECA employees. 

Alison has created an inclusive workplace where employees feel valued – as evidenced by IVLP’s exceptional retention rate of Department staff – and her versatile skill set allows her to liaise at the highest levels within the Department, host prominent visitors in her home, and help staff manage the smallest details of their projects at all hours, making her a consummate public diplomacy leader in both words and deeds.

Thank you, Alison, for exemplifying the legacies of former Assistant Secretaries Alice Ilchman and John Richardson.

Diler Hamad

Diler’s breadth of work at the U.S. Consulate General Erbil includes supervising the entire cultural, educational, outreach, and grants unit, advancing issues as diverse and critical as women’s rights, climate change, educational reform, economic development, civil society training, and much more. In 2024, As the Public Engagement Specialist, Diler supercharged the English language programs, won a complicated multi-year grant competition to help Kurdish universities counter Chinese influence and served as a trusted, compassionate advisor and advocate on human rights. In these and many other ways Diler clearly, measurably advanced U.S. policy while making a positive difference in the lives of many people in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Valentyna Pashkova

As a 20-year veteran of Embassy Kyiv’s Public Diplomacy Section, Valentyna Pashkova exemplifies the highest standards of creativity, passion, and commitment to cultural and educational diplomacy. As the American Spaces Program Specialist, she has been instrumental in developing and sustaining the network of 26 American centers, shelves, and spaces across Ukraine that are a model for other Eastern European countries. Valentyna’s long career at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has been marked by unyielding creativity and steadfast commitment, benefiting both U.S. direct hires and local staff. Her embodiment of cross-cultural sensitivity, patience, wisdom, generosity, and humanity make her an exemplary recipient of the Jodie Lewinsohn Career Achievement Award.

Claire With

As the Resource Coordinator, U.S. Embassy Oslo, Claire was instrumental in the October 2023 opening of the American Presence Post in Tromso, Norway, based on her years of experience understanding the most effective ways to engage the disparate communities of the Arctic. Over Claire’s long career she has continuously demonstrated her commitment to the development of cultural understanding between the two countries. 

Counselor for Public Affairs Jillian F. Bonnardeaux, Claire’s nominator, commends her role as the senior-most member of the Public Diplomacy Section as the indispensable institutional memory for the hundreds of grantees and cultural programs over the decades.

*The Prix Coindreau Prize, The Jeanne Varnay Pleasants Prize for Language Teaching, and the CASVA-Henry & Judith Millon Award are currently inactive.