Contact:

Tara D. Sonenshine

(Washington, December 17) – The U.S. Institute of Peace today announced that Tara D. Sonenshine will become Vice President for Planning and Outreach effective January 5, 2009. In that capacity, Sonenshine will oversee strategic planning, public outreach and publications. She will also manage the planning of the Public Education Center that will be part of the Institute’s new headquarters project on the National Mall.

“I am delighed that Tara is joining the Institute’s senior leadership team. She brings enormous experience in global communications and foreign policy at a time when we are expanding our outreach and public education,” said Richard H. Solomon, President of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Sonenshine recently completed a project with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen for the Genocide Prevention Task Force, which was jointly convened by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, The American Academy of Diplomacy and the U.S. Institute of Peace. Tara served in the Clinton Administration as both Deputy Director for Communications on the National Security Council and later as Transition Director for foreign policy planning. She is the winner of 10 News Emmy Awards for her international productions for ABC News' “Nightline.” She was a Contributing Editor at Newsweek magazine and President of WomensNewsLink.com. She speaks Russian and Spanish and is an expert on creating and sustaining public visibility around issues, and developing external relations. She is published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Russkoye Novoe Slovo, and other outlets.