2025 PDCA Award for Public Diplomacy Leadership
1. SUMMARY: The Public Diplomacy Council of America (PDCA) is now inviting nominations for its 2025 Award for Public Diplomacy Leadership by a Senior Officer. This annual award recognizes public diplomacy leadership by a senior officer overseas or in a domestic assignment in the Department of State. Award recipients will be offered certificates of achievement by PDCA. Awardees will be recognized at a virtual special awards ceremony and asked to describe the projects or activities that served as the basis for their awards as a part of this online ceremony, held in conjunction with Foreign Affairs Day o/a May 2, 2025. Nominations for the award should be submitted by Friday, March 28, 2025.
2. BACKGROUND: PDCA and its predecessor organizations have awarded honors to public diplomacy activities at American Embassies and Consulates or to domestic offices supporting public diplomacy since 1992. PDCA is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) association of professionals and scholars with a stated mission of promoting excellence in the professional practice or academic study of, and advocacy for, public diplomacy. With this award, PDCA honors a senior officer not directly leading a Public Diplomacy section overseas. U.S. Ambassador to Chile Bernadette Meehan and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Camille Dawson were the inaugural recipients of the Award for Public Diplomacy Leadership by a Senior Officer in 2024.
3. ELIGIBILITY: The PDCA Award for Public Diplomacy Leadership by a Senior Officer is open to Chiefs of Mission and Principal Officers overseas and to Assistant Secretaries and Deputy Assistant Secretaries in domestic assignments. Officers in these positions in all bureaus are eligible. The award recipients should ensure the conditions set forth in 11 FAM 613.1-6(A) have been met, and confer with L/EFD in the event there are any questions in that regard.
4. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF NOMINATIONS:
a. Integrates public diplomacy strategies across the range of foreign policy objectives.
b. Demonstrates leadership in marshaling broad mission participation in public diplomacy activities abroad or in prioritizing public diplomacy efforts within a domestic bureau or building partnerships between bureaus and offices in support of specific public diplomacy initiatives. Weight will be given to efforts that mobilize all embassy sections in conducting mission-wide public diplomacy work.
c. Has had documented success in using public diplomacy tools, including social media, to change a host country policy and/or host country public opinion on an issue of major importance to U.S. policy or perceptions of the United States.
d. Has evidence of success in building new institutional linkages and enlisting non-USG entities such as educational institutions and private business, whether American or host country, to support public diplomacy programs and initiatives (financially, politically, technically, or otherwise) to multiply their impact, scope, and/or effectiveness in the host country or regionally.
e. Demonstrates leadership in using innovative strategies to rapidly and effectively change public diplomacy and build support for U.S. positions and policies.
b. Demonstrates leadership in marshaling broad mission participation in public diplomacy activities abroad or in prioritizing public diplomacy efforts within a domestic bureau or building partnerships between bureaus and offices in support of specific public diplomacy initiatives. Weight will be given to efforts that mobilize all embassy sections in conducting mission-wide public diplomacy work.
c. Has had documented success in using public diplomacy tools, including social media, to change a host country policy and/or host country public opinion on an issue of major importance to U.S. policy or perceptions of the United States.
d. Has evidence of success in building new institutional linkages and enlisting non-USG entities such as educational institutions and private business, whether American or host country, to support public diplomacy programs and initiatives (financially, politically, technically, or otherwise) to multiply their impact, scope, and/or effectiveness in the host country or regionally.
e. Demonstrates leadership in using innovative strategies to rapidly and effectively change public diplomacy and build support for U.S. positions and policies.
5. NOMINATION CONTENT: Nominations (unclassified material only) should be sent by e-mail to awards@publicdiplomacy.org and include the following:
a. Name, title, and email address of nominator;
b. Name, title, work location, and email address of nominated individual(s) and group designation, when appropriate;
c. Brief description of nominee(s) role(s) within the organization;
d. Statement of public diplomacy goal(s) achieved; and
e. Narrative (maximum of two double-spaced pages) describing a specific initiative or activity and how it contributed/s to achievement of the public diplomacy goal(s) identified immediately above. General performance evaluations are not sufficient. Nominations should document leadership and evidence of effective use of media, social media, digital programming, exchange programs or cultural presentations, and/or private-sector contributions in achieving specific projects in challenging environments.
f. Publicly available relevant information in photographic, video, and/or written form that would specifically support a nomination may also be included. Web links may be provided to any such material that is publicly accessible online. Nominators wishing to include any material subject to third-party copyright or other IP rights must ensure they have appropriate permission to do so. g. All information should be strictly unclassified and non-sensitive; no nonpublic information may be provided.
b. Name, title, work location, and email address of nominated individual(s) and group designation, when appropriate;
c. Brief description of nominee(s) role(s) within the organization;
d. Statement of public diplomacy goal(s) achieved; and
e. Narrative (maximum of two double-spaced pages) describing a specific initiative or activity and how it contributed/s to achievement of the public diplomacy goal(s) identified immediately above. General performance evaluations are not sufficient. Nominations should document leadership and evidence of effective use of media, social media, digital programming, exchange programs or cultural presentations, and/or private-sector contributions in achieving specific projects in challenging environments.
f. Publicly available relevant information in photographic, video, and/or written form that would specifically support a nomination may also be included. Web links may be provided to any such material that is publicly accessible online. Nominators wishing to include any material subject to third-party copyright or other IP rights must ensure they have appropriate permission to do so. g. All information should be strictly unclassified and non-sensitive; no nonpublic information may be provided.
6. SELECTION: The award recipients will be notified of their selection by email in late April and invited to participate in a special virtual program (normally held in conjunction with Foreign Affairs Day on May 2, 2025) that honors the winner and 2 provides them with the opportunity to describe the project or activity for which they were nominated.
7. ACTION REQUEST: Nominations should be emailed no later than March 28, 2025, to the following PDCA awards email address: awards@publicdiplomacy.org.