People on the Move

William B. Taylor, Jr joined USIP in October 2009 as vice president, Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations. A graduate of West Point and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Taylor has served in posts in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. Most recently, he was U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009. Prior to that assignment, he was the U.S. government’s representative to the Mideast Quartet, which facilitated the Israeli disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. Taylor served in Baghdad as director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office from 2004 to 2005, and in Kabul as coordinator of international and U.S. assistance to Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003. Ambassador Taylor was also a coordinator of U.S. assistance to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. As an infantry platoon leader and company commander in the U.S. Army, he served in Vietnam and Germany. 

Marvin Kalb, Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice Emeritus, and Senior Fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, was the Shorenstein Centers Founding Director and Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy(1987 to 1999). He was recipient of the 2006 National Press Club Fourth Estate Award. His distinguished journalism career encompasses 30 years of award-winning reporting for CBS and NBC News as Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, Moscow Bureau Chief, and host of Meet the Press. Kalb joined the Institute as its first “Writer in Residence.” Kalb is working on a book focusing on the effect of the Vietnam War on American policy and politics. He is also moderating programs for USIP and offering guidance on the media and public diplomacy.

Daniel P. Serwer leads the Centers of Innovation, full time. Previously, Serwer divided time between the Center for Post Conflict Peace and Stability Operations and the Centers of Innovation. He launched the Institute's on-the-ground, operational work in the Balkans, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan. His new portfolio includes innovation in rule of law, religion, sustainable economies, media and conflict, security sector reform, science, technology, diaspora and gender. Serwer served from 1994 to 1996 as U.S. special envoy and coordinator for the Bosnian Federation, mediating between Croats and Muslims and negotiating the first agreement reached at the Dayton peace talks. From 1990 to 1992, he was deputy chief of mission and charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, where he led a major diplomatic mission through the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War.

USIP former board member Maria Otero was confirmed as undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs. She accompanied Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the Institute's event on October 21st at which Secretary Clinton spoke about the challenge of non-proliferation.

Flanked by USIP Board members Kerry Kennedy and Nancy Zirkin at the 2008 Dean Acheson Lecture, International Advisory Council member Elizabeth Bagley was sworn in on June 18th to be the State Department's Special Representative for Global Partnerships.

Former USIP board member Laurie Fulton was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Denmark. Fulton has also been helping the Institute's building campaign to honor former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

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