The Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) is happy to announce that Mr. Brad Minnick is its new Director for Communications and Community Outreach. He will spearhead the center’s efforts to engage thousands of alumni around the world and expand the global audience that looks to ACSS as a leader on African security issues.

Brad comes to ACSS from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where he was the project director for its Public Diplomacy initiative. He is an internationally recognized management and communications advisor and principal at HKS Global, a Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm. Before that, he was Director of the Office of International Visitors at the U.S. Department of State and CEO of the American Council of Young Political Leaders, an international exchange organization.

He brings a tremendous amount of public relations experience, working with government officials, NGO leaders, political activists, and businesspeople around the globe in management and communications strategy and tactics.

Over the years, Brad has traveled to ten African countries on business and as part of trade missions. He has been part of numerous exchanges with African leaders and he sees a bright economic and political future for the continent. He says ACSS is contributing to that future by producing quality work that dissects current problems and engages Africans in finding solutions.

“Improving mutual understanding makes for a better world,” he says. “We have 20 languages spoken here at the Africa Center and a combined 500 years of experience on African-U.S. issues to contribute to the conversation. I’m excited to use that to engage more alumni and a broader audience.”

Brad holds a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from American University in Washington, D.C.

The Africa Center is the premier agency of the United States charged with advancing U.S. security interests in Africa through the development of a self-sustaining, networked and empowered community of current and future African security sector leaders.  It engages African partner states and institutions through rigorous academic and outreach programs that build strategic capacity and foster long-term, collaborative relationships.

ACSS advances U.S. foreign and security policies by strengthening the strategic capacity of African states to identify and resolve security challenges in ways that promote civil-military cooperation, respect democratic values, and safeguard human rights.