Dr. Jonathan Henick

Instructor/Visiting Professor

Department of State

Jonathan Henick, a member of the Senior Foreign Service, is currently assigned as the U.S. Department of State Chair at the College of Information and Cyberspace at the National Defense University.  Previously, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central Asia Affairs, Public Diplomacy and Press. Prior to that he served as Acting Deputy Coordinator of the Global Engagement Center (GEC) where he helped to lead and coordinate all U.S. government efforts to counter disinformation from Russia, China, and Iran. He also served as the Principal Deputy Coordinator and Acting Coordinator for the Bureau for International Information Programs. He served previously as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director for Press and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs where he was responsible for the conduct of U.S. public diplomacy in 13 countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. He has also served overseas as the Counselor for Public Affairs in Turkey, the Deputy Chief of Mission in Timor-Leste, as well as in other positions in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Portugal, and Uzbekistan. He has worked as a Public Diplomacy Fellow and Professor at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs and as a visiting Research Fellow and Diplomat-in-Residence at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. He has received the Public Diplomacy Alumni Association Achievement Award, as well as individual Superior Honor Awards from the State Department. Originally from New York, he speaks Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, and Azerbaijani, and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Hawaii and a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University.