Expert Bio

John Sitilides is Chairman, Board of Advisors, of the Woodrow Wilson Center Southeast Europe Project, launched in January 2005 to analyze U.S. geopolitical, commercial, and security issues and interests in southeastern Europe and adjacent regions. He is also on the Board of Directors of BioVest International, Inc, which manufactures individualized cancer immunotherapies, and on the Board of Trustees of Leadership 100, a national Orthodox Christian endowment fund. Mr. Sitilides formerly served as Executive Director of the Western Policy Center, a Washington, D.C. international relations organization conducting analysis of U.S. foreign and security policies in the eastern Mediterranean and southern Balkans, which was merged into the Woodrow Wilson Center in December 2004. He founded the organization in 1998 and built it into one of Washington's preeminent institutions, directing all aspects of strategic planning, policy analysis, government and corporate relations, financial management, coalition building, and media communications. Mr. Sitilides was selected by the Department of State under its "U.S. Speaker Specialist" program to promote public diplomacy and communicate American domestic and foreign policies before European Union audiences. He has twice been formally recognized by the Department of State for his expertise on international affairs, and testified before Congress on U.S.-European relations. In September 2003, he was appointed to the Department of Commerce Joint Science and Technology Cooperation Advisory Council. Mr. Sitilides is a regular speaker on foreign policy at the Pentagon's National Defense University, the Foreign Service Institute, and the National Foreign Affairs Training Center, and has guest lectured or presented papers on regional and global issues at Oxford University (Great Britain), Johns Hopkins University (U.S. & Italy), Yale University, George Mason University, the University of Texas School of Law, the City University of New York, and other academic institutions. A member of the National Speakers Association and frequent media commentator, Mr. Sitilides has been interviewed by CNN, CNN International, National Public Radio, BBC News, Voice of America, syndicated radio networks, and other U.S. and international broadcast media. His op-eds have been published by The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Sacramento Bee, and other U.S. newspapers, and he has been quoted and referenced by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The International Herald Tribune, and other U.S., European, and international print media. Mr. Sitilides is a member of the Wilson Council, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C., and the Columbia University Club. He is also an International Host at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Sitilides was a government relations strategist in Sacramento, California. From 1985 to 1993, he was a legislative and communications advisor to U.S. Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-NY), and was Communications Manager on the Senator's successful 1992 re-election campaign. In 1988, he managed the successful election campaign of New York State Senator Serphin Maltese (R-Queens).

Education

M.A., International Affairs, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs; B.A., Political Science, Queens College

Experience

Chair of the State Department's Advanced Area Studies program on Greece and Cyprus at the Foreign Service Institute; Executive Director, Western Policy Center; selected by the Department of State under its "U.S. Speaker Specialist" program to promote public diplomacy and communicate American domestic and foreign policies before EU audiences; member of the Department of Commerce Joint Science and Technology Cooperation Advisory Council; regular speaker on foreign policy at the Pentagon's National Defense University and the National Foreign Affairs Training Center

Major Publications

• "The Road through Brussels: The U.S.-Turkey Agenda," Turkish Policy Quarterly (Summer 2005)
  
• "Strategic Engagement in a New Era," BBC International, October 2004