RFE/RL Announces National Security Expert Lisa Curtis as Board Chair
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is pleased to announce that Lisa Curtis was appointed as Board Chair on July 31, 2024. Curtis has been serving on the RFE/RL Board of Directors since September 16, 2022.
RFE/RL President & CEO Stephen Capus said:
“We are thrilled for Lisa to take up this important role as she brings a wealth of leadership experience in government and U.S. foreign policy. Lisa is the right person for the job at this critical time in our history as she has demonstrated a passion for making sure our journalists have the tools they need to deliver free and accurate information to RFE/RL’s weekly audience of 42 million people.”
Curtis is Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. She is a foreign policy and national security expert with over 20 years of service in the U.S. government. Her work has centered on U.S. policy toward the Indo-Pacific, particularly South Asia. From 2017 to 2021, Curtis served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for South and Central Asia at the NSC. During her tenure at the NSC, she coordinated U.S. policy development and implementation of the South Asia Strategy signed by President Trump in August 2017 and the U.S. Strategy for Central Asia 2019-2025, which was published by the State Department in January 2020.
She also contributed to the Indo-Pacific Strategic Framework and coordinated policies designed to strengthen the U.S.-India partnership, resulting in a widely recognized elevation of the relationship. Curtis received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in December 2020 in recognition of her work at the NSC.
From 2006 to 2017, Curtis was Senior Fellow on South Asia at The Heritage Foundation, where she appeared regularly in the media and provided frequent Congressional testimony. She also served as Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2003 to 2006), Senior Advisor in the South Asia Bureau at the State Department (2001 to 2003), senior analyst on South Asia at the CIA (1996 to 2001), and as a diplomat at the U.S. Embassies in Pakistan and India (1994 to 1997).
Curtis has published commentary in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN.com, NPR.org, and other media outlets and has made multiple appearances on CNN, Fox News, BBC, PBS, MSNBC, and C-SPAN. In addition to serving as Board Chair at RFE/RL, she is on the Leadership Council of Women in National Security (LCWINS) and is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
See the full list of RFE/RL’s Board of Directors and learn about its mission.
For more information, contact press@rferl.org.
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About RFE/RL
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach influential audiences in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.