Elizabeth M. Allen is the State Department's Senior Official for the office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, and was appointed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2022. She also served as the Assistant Secretary of Global Public Affairs.
With over 15 years of strategic communications and public affairs experience, Ms. Allen specializes in message strategy, project and crisis management, and leadership communications. She was previously a Partner at Finsbury Glover Hering (FGH), leading integrated communications campaigns and providing strategic counsel to a range of global philanthropic, corporate, non-profit and entertainment clients. In 2020, she served as Vice President Kamala Harris’s communications director on the Biden-Harris Presidential campaign.
Prior to FGH, Ms. Allen spent seven years in the Obama-Biden White House, serving as Deputy Communications Director and Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama, White House Director of Message Planning, and Deputy Director of Communications to then-Vice President Joe Biden.
During her White House tenure, Ms. Allen drove communications planning around the President’s priorities, domestic and foreign policies, and legislative and outreach strategy. She managed complex message events, groundbreaking interviews and documentaries, and press coverage for President Obama and Vice President Biden across the United States and in more than 30 foreign countries on five continents.
Ms. Allen also worked at the U.S. Department of State as Director of Public Affairs for Educational and Cultural Affairs, focusing on public diplomacy and the impact of people-to-people exchange programs and international education. She previously worked at the State Department on human trafficking and international women’s issues.
Barnard College Senior Advisor to the president, Emma Wolfe, will introduce Ms. Allen, who will discuss her career in government and answer student questions about career paths.
Cosponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University; the Athena Center for Leadership, and the Office of Community Engagement and Inclusion at Barnard College.
Registration is required. Pizza will be provided.
