About Us

Sean Aday, Director IDPGC

Sean Aday joined The George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs in 2000, after completing his Ph.D. and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. His work focuses on the intersection of the press, politics, and public opinion, especially in relation to war and foreign policy. He has published widely on subjects ranging from the effects of watching local television news to coverage of American politics to media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been involved in media and government capacity training projects globally, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Aday currently serves as the Director of GW's Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication and directs the Global Communication Master's Program. As part of a National Science Foundation grant, he, along with two colleagues, conducted a series of surveys about Americans' attitudes about government and media following the September 11th terrorist attacks. Aday was also the principle investigator for DC Student Voices, a curriculum-based project in Washington DC high schools that aimed to get students more involved in politics. He has been a frequent commentator in the press on news coverage of elections, crime, and war.

Before entering academia, Aday served as a general assignment reporter for the Kansas City Star, Kansas City, MO, the Milwaukee Journal in Milwaukee, WI, and the Greenville News, Greenville, SC. He graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1990.

Mark Taplin, Senior Public Diplomacy Fellow IPDGC

Mark Taplin is the Public Diplomacy Fellow at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs, on loan from the U.S. Department of State.

He is a career Foreign Service Officer with the rank of minister counselor. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1980.

From 2005-2008, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, Romania. During his tenure, he helped promote a close partnership between the U.S. and Romania. In April 2008, he served as the overall U.S. control officer for the visit of President Bush to Romania and for the Bucharest NATO summit, the largest ever held by the Alliance.

From 2002-2004, he served as Director for Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus at the U.S. Department of State.

He also served as Deputy Director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (2001-2002) and Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine (1999-2001). His past overseas assignments also include two tours in Moscow, as well as public diplomacy assignments in Brazil, Haiti and Mauritius.

He holds a bachelor's degree in humanities and international affairs from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a master's degree in strategic studies from the University College of Wales (Aberystwyth). He is the author of Open Lands: Travels Through Russia's Once Forbidden Places (Steerforth Press, 1997).