[United States Government Manual]
[May 31, 1996]
[Pages 686-693]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY
301 Fourth Street SW., Washington, DC 20547
Phone, 202-619-4700
Director Joseph D. Duffey
Chief of Staff Iris J. Burnett
Deputy Director Penn Kemble
Counselor Donna M. Oglesby
Executive Secretary Louise Taylor
Chairman, U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Lewis Manilow
Diplomacy
Vice Chairman, U.S. Advisory Commission on William Hybl
Public Diplomacy
Director, Office of Civil Rights Hattie P. Baldwin
Inspector General Marian C. Bennett
General Counsel Les Jin
Director, Office of Congressional and Douglas Wilson
Intergovernmental Affairs
Director, Office of Public Liaison Kimberly Marteau
Director, Office of Research Ann T. Pincus
Deputy Director Stephen M. Shaffer
Associate Director for Broadcasting Geoffrey Cowan, Acting
Deputy Associate Director (vacancy)
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Director, Voice of America Geoffrey Cowan
Senior Adviser Joyce Kravitz
Director, Office of External Richard W. McBride
Affairs and Development
Director, Office of Budget and (vacancy)
Planning
Director, Office of Affiliate Myrna Whitworth
Relations and International
Media Training
Director, Office of Personnel and Eva Jane Fritzman
Administration
Director, Office of Policy Steve Munson
Director, Office of Program Frank Cummins
Review
Director, Office of Engineering Robert E. Kamosa
and Technical Operations
Director, Office of WORLDNET Charles W. Fox III
Television and Film Service
Director, Office of Cuba Rolando Bonachea,
Broadcasting Acting
Director, Radio Marti Rolando Bonachea
Director, TV Marti Antonio Dieguez
President, Radio Free Europe/ Kevin Klose
Radio Liberty, Inc. (RFE/RL)
Broadcasting Board of Governors:
Chairman David W. Burke
Members Joseph D. Duffey,
Cheryl Halpern,
Edward E. Kaufman,
Tom C. Korologos,
Bette Bao Lord,
Alberto J. Mora,
Marc B. Nathanson,
Carl Spielvogel
Chief of Staff Kathleen Harrington
Director of Evaluation and Brian T. Conniff
Analysis
Legal Counsel John A. Lindburg
Congressional Liaison Officer Jon Beard
Confidential Assistant Barbara Floyd
Associate Director for Information Robert Barry Fulton
Deputy Associate Director Myron L. Hoffmann
Director, Geographic Liaison Pamela H. Smith
Director, Thematic Programs Judith S. Siegel
Director, Foreign Press Centers Jacob P. Gillespie
Director, Support Services C. Anthony Jackson
Executive Officer (vacancy)
Associate Director for Educational and Cultural John P. Loiello
Affairs
Deputy Associate Director Dell Pendergrast
Executive Director, Cultural Marie Papageorge
Property Staff Kouroupas
Staff Director, J. William Ralph H. Vogel
Fulbright Foreign Scholarship
Board
Director, Office of Citizen Robert Schiffer
Exchanges
Director, Office of International Lula Rodriguez
Visitors
Director, Office of Academic Edward McBride
Programs
Director, Office of Arts America Coroline Croft
Director, Office of Policy and David Michael Wilson
Evaluation
Executive Officer J. David Whitten
Associate Director for Management Henry Howard
Deputy Associate Director JoAnn Clifton
Director, Office of Eileen Keane Binns
Administration
Director, Office of Technology Daniel S. Campbell
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Director, Office of Human Jan Brambilla
Resources
Comptroller, Office of the Stanley M. Silverman
Comptroller
Director, Office of Security Larry Carnahan, Acting
Director, Office of Contracts Edward G. Muller,
Acting
Executive Officer Daniel D. Dunning
Director, Office of African Affairs Thomas Hull
Deputy Director Cornelius Walsh
Director, Office of American Republics Affairs Stephen Chaplin
Deputy Director John Dwyer
Director, Office of East Asian and Pacific Frank Scotton
Affairs
Deputy Director Nicholas Mele
Director, Office of West European and Canadian John P. Harrod
Affairs
Deputy Director C. Miller Crouch
Director, Office of East European and NIS Anne M. Sigmund
Affairs
Deputy Director Morris E. Jacobs
Director, Office of North African, Near Eastern Kenton Keith
and South Asian Affairs
Deputy Director Jonathan Owen
[For the United States Information Agency statement of organization, see
the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 22, Part 504]
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The mission of the United States Information Agency is to understand,
inform, and influence foreign communities in promotion of the national
interest; and to broaden the dialog between Americans, their
institutions, and counterparts abroad. In support of that mission, the
Agency conducts academic and cultural exchanges, international
broadcasting, and a wide variety of informational programs. The Agency
is known as the U.S. Information Service overseas.
The legislative mandates of the United States Information Agency (USIA)
derive from the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act
of 1948 (22 U.S.C. 1431) and the Mutual Educational and Cultural
Exchange Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2451). The U.S. Information and
Educational Exchange Act's purpose is to increase mutual understanding
between the people of the United States and the people of other
countries. It prohibits, with certain exceptions approved by Congress,
dissemination within the United States of materials produced by the
Agency for distribution overseas. It also requires the Agency to make
its overseas program materials available for public inspection at its
Washington, DC, headquarters. The Mutual Educational and Cultural
Exchange Act authorizes educational and cultural exchanges between the
United States and other countries, as well as United States
participation in international fairs and expositions abroad.
The five executive level offices of the Agency are the Office of
Public Liaison, Office of the General Counsel, Office of Congressional
and Intergovernmental Affairs, Office of the Inspector General, and the
Office of Research.
Activities
The activities of the U.S. Information Agency are based on two key
premises. The first is that foreign public opinion is important and that
USIA should work to understand it, with the hope that our understanding
will be a factor in policy formation; to inform others about American
life and values, policies, and interests as a nation; and, if possible,
to eliminate misperception and move others to action in ways that serve
the national interest. The second premise is that mutual understanding
born of
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people-to-people communication matters, and that USIA should serve as a
facilitator to bring Americans and their academic and other
nongovernmental sector institutions into substantive contact with
influential counterparts abroad through exchanges and other programs.
On this basis, USIA works to:
--explain and advocate U.S. policies in terms that are credible and
meaningful in foreign cultures;
--provide information about the United States, its people, values,
and institutions;
--build lasting relationships and understanding between Americans
and U.S. institutions and their counterparts overseas through the
exchange of people and ideas; and
--advise on foreign attitudes and their implications for U.S.
policies.
To accomplish its purposes, the Agency conducts a variety of
activities overseas, including educational and academic exchanges,
international radio and television broadcasting, English teaching, the
distribution of transcripts and official texts of significant U.S.
Government policy statements, maintaining information resource centers
overseas with online reference capabilities, assisting the mass media in
bringing information about U.S. foreign policy to audiences around the
world, and facilitating linkages between American and foreign
nongovernmental institutions.
Functional Elements
The four major functional elements of the Agency are the International
Broadcasting Bureau, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the
Bureau of Information, and the Bureau of Management.
International Broadcasting Bureau The International Broadcasting Bureau
(IBB) was established by the United States International Broadcasting
Act of 1994. While a part of USIA, IBB receives decisionmaking and
operational guidance from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The
Bureau consists of the Voice of America, the Office of Cuba
Broadcasting, WORLDNET Television and Film Service, and Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty.
The Voice of America (VOA) is the International Broadcasting
Bureau's functional element for worldwide radio broadcasting. VOA
operates in accordance with the act of January 27, 1948, as amended (22
U.S.C. 1463), which requires that it serve as a consistently reliable,
authoritative, accurate, objective, and comprehensive news source. It
must present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant
American thought and institutions. VOA produces and broadcasts radio
programs in English and 46 foreign languages for overseas audiences, and
to over 2000 affiliate stations worldwide. Its programming includes
world and regional news, reports from correspondents on the scene,
analyses of worldwide events, feature programs, music, and editorials.
The Office of Cuba Broadcasting is located within the Voice of
America. It oversees all programming broadcast for Cuba on VOA's Radio
Marti and TV Marti programs. In keeping with the principles of the VOA
charter, both services offer their audiences accurate and objective news
reports and features on American culture and opinion. Radio Marti
broadcasts on medium and shortwave frequencies. TV Marti is available on
VHF (very high frequency) and international satellite.
The WORLDNET Television and Film Service is responsible for
organizing and directing the International Broadcasting Bureau's
worldwide television and film activities. The areas of responsibility
encompass: producing programs and interactive press conferences for the
WORLDNET satellite delivery system; newsfiles in English, Spanish,
French, Arabic, Ukrainian, and Russian; producing and acquiring films
and videotapes for direct projection or placement overseas; providing
facilitative assistance to visiting foreign television and film
producers; operating television news bureaus at foreign press centers;
providing assistance to foreign broadcasters in the production and
telecast of cooperative television
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programs; serving as the Bureau's primary point of contact with American
motion picture and television industries; and coordinating with other
U.S. and foreign government agencies on the dissemination of information
overseas through motion pictures and television.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc. (RFE/RL) is a private,
nonprofit corporation funded by U.S. Government grants, broadcasting
more than 700 hours weekly of news, analysis, and current affairs in 22
languages to more than 25 million regular listeners in Central Europe
and the former Soviet Union. RFE/RL also reaches listeners from U.S.
Government-funded shortwave stations in Spain, Portugal, Germany,
Thailand, and the Philippines and via satellite to local AM/FM stations
including national networks in Ukraine, the Baltic States, Bulgaria, the
Czech and Slovak Republics, and Kyrgyzstan. Major AM/FM stations in
Russia, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, the Caucasus, and Central Asia
also carry RFE/RL programs.
Bureau of Information The Bureau of Information is USIA's primary
source of information products for its posts and publics abroad. It is
moving into new electronic communications media as fast as technology
permits, while maintaining an extensive line of print products,
operating a specialized wire service, facilitating the activities of
foreign media in the United States, and operating a worldwide speakers
bureau on significant issues in foreign affairs.
The Bureau is introducing an interactive CD-ROM on student
counseling and a weekly series of Internet-based electronic journals
covering major issues to complement its wide range of electronic media.
These products focus on representing enduring American values,
particularly individual freedom and equality under the law, and on
promoting democratization, market economics, human rights, the rule of
law, and the peaceful resolution of disputes.
The Bureau's offices and teams are organized around major themes in
public diplomacy, regional concerns and interests, and media
specialties. Its products and services are produced in response to
requirements set by USIA field posts and U.S. foreign affairs
priorities.
The Office of Geographic Liaison serves as the primary point of
contact with the field. In addition, it provides comprehensive research
and bibliographic assistance and editing and distribution for time-
sensitive texts. The Office functions as a regional news service,
providing operational support and advice to more than 100 USIS
documentation and information resource centers and libraries overseas,
and managing regional operations of the Bureau's international wire
service, the Wireless File. The Office responds to the special needs of
each of the Agency's overseas posts.
The Office of Thematic Programs creates information products keyed
to themes in American foreign policy that have been identified as vital:
Economic Security, Political Security, Democracy and Human Rights, U.S.
Society and Values, and Global Issues and Communication. Equally
important is the Office's active speakers program, in which physical
travel by the Nation's leading experts on identified issues is
supplemented by video and audio conferencing with their counterparts
abroad.
Foreign Press Centers have been established in Washington, DC, New
York City, and Los Angeles to give foreign journalists visiting or
residing in the United States information about U.S. policies and access
to policymakers. The Centers are affiliated with a network of locally
initiated and funded International Press Centers in Atlanta, Chicago,
Houston, Miami, and Seattle.
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs The Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs administers programs authorized by the Mutual
Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (the Fulbright-Hays Act),
including academic exchanges, short-term professional exchanges, youth
exchanges, cooperative projects with private organizations, and English-
teaching programs. It also provides staff support for the Presidentially
appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship
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Board and for the Cultural Property Advisory Committee. The Bureau
consists of four major offices:
The Office of Academic Programs develops and coordinates a wide
variety of academic educational exchange and English language-teaching
programs. It oversees the administration of more than 7,000 grants each
year to U.S. citizens to study, teach, and conduct research abroad, and
for foreign nationals to conduct similar activities in the United
States. The best known of the exchanges supported by this office is the
Fulbright Program which operates in more than 120 countries. The Office
of Academic Programs maintains a worldwide information network about
educational opportunities in the United States, and supports programs
which enhance the experiences of foreign students enrolled in U.S.
colleges and universities. The Office also encourages and supports U.S.-
based studies at foreign universities and other institutions of higher
learning. Worldwide support for English language training is provided
through overseas-based language consultants, development of English
language teaching materials, and a variety of teacher training seminars
and fellowships.
The Office of International Visitors arranges informative visits to
the United States for more than 5,000 influential foreign leaders each
year in such fields as government, economics, labor, journalism, the
arts, and education. Selected individuals, who are nominated by United
States Information Service posts, travel throughout the country meeting
counterparts in their fields of interest. They also meet with Americans
in their homes or other informal settings. The Office also manages the
Agency's two reception centers; serves as the Agency's liaison with the
large network of public and private organizations involved in the
international visitor program; and arranges programs in the United
States for United Nations fellows and foreign government trainees.
The Office of Citizen Exchanges provides funding to American
nonprofit institutions for international exchange and training programs
which support agency goals and objectives. Nonprofit institutions may
submit proposals only in response to requests for proposals (RFP's)
published by the Office, and these proposals are judged among others in
the competition. Programs usually involve professional, nonacademic
exchanges--often with study tours, workshops, and internships as key
components, and taking place in multiple phases overseas and in the
United States. Emphasis is usually on nontechnical themes such as
democracy-building, journalism, the role of government, or conflict
resolution. The Office also administers all high school exchange
programs sponsored by USIA, including major special initiatives in East
Europe and the former Soviet Union, and the Congress-Bundestag program
with Germany.
The Office of Arts America administers fine and performing arts
programs, sending performing arts groups and fine arts exhibitions on
overseas tours. Arts America identifies and recruits specialists in the
fields of literature, film, and the visual and performing arts to speak
at or work with host country institutions in their fields of expertise.
The Office also awards grants to American nonprofit institutions
involved in the international exchange of performing and visual artists
and encourages linkages between U.S. and foreign cultural institutions.
Arts America also represents the Agency in the Fund for U.S. Artists at
International Festivals and Exhibitions.
The Office of Policy and Evaluation provides policy analysis,
coordination, and evaluation of the activities and programs of the
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The Office also analyzes
U.S. Government-funded international exchanges and training programs
with the objective of promoting better coordination among government
agencies. The Office is responsible for advising the Associate Director
on conceptual approaches to the Bureau's activities and on the
development and implementation of its policies. It coordinates
activities with the Bureau to ensure consistency of approach; evaluates
the success, strengths, and weaknesses of programs;
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and provides staff support to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee,
which advises the Director on U.S. efforts to curb illicit trade in
artifacts.
Overseas Posts
Principally an overseas agency, USIA's work is carried out by its
foreign service officers and staff assigned to American missions abroad.
Overseas posts engage in political advocacy of American foreign policy
objectives and conduct cultural and educational exchanges and
informational activities in support of those objectives. The Agency
maintains 212 posts in 147 countries.
Sources of Information
Administrative Regulations Inquiries regarding administrative staff
manuals and instructions to staff affecting members of the public that
were issued, adopted, or promulgated on or after July 5, 1967, should be
directed to the Directives, Forms and Records Management Staff, United
States Information Agency, Washington, DC 20547. Phone, 202-619-5680.
Contracts Contact the Office of Contracts, United States Information
Agency, Washington, DC 20547. Phone, 202-205-5498.
Employment For information concerning employment opportunities, contact
the Domestic Personnel Division, Office of Personnel, United States
Information Agency, Washington, DC 20547. Phone, 202-619-4659. For Voice
of America and WORLDNET Television and Film Service employment
information, contact the Office of Personnel, International Broadcasting
Bureau, United States Information Agency, Washington, DC 20547. Phone,
202-619-3117. For Office of Cuba Broadcasting employment information,
contact the Office of Personnel, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, United
States Information Agency, Washington, DC 20547. Phone, 202-401-7114.
International Audiovisual Programs For information concerning a
certification program under international agreement to facilitate the
export and import of qualified visual and auditory materials of an
educational, scientific, and cultural character, contact the Chief
Attestation Officer of the United States, United States Information
Agency, Washington, DC 20547. Phone, 202-475-0221.
For further information, contact the Office of Public Liaison, United
States Information Agency, Washington, DC 20547. Phone, 202-619-4355.
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