Dr. Nancy Snow is Associate Professor of Public Diplomacy in the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She teaches in the dual degree Masters Program in Public Diplomacy sponsored by the Newhouse School and Maxwell School. She is an affiliate faculty member of the Maxwell School in the Executive Education Program, the Middle East Studies Program and International Relations Program. In spring 2009 she was co-director of the Religion, Media and International Affairs Program sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Snow is a member of the Academic Leadership Council of Business for Diplomatic Action. She holds lifetime memberships with the Public Diplomacy Council at George Washington University, Fulbright Association, and Public Diplomacy Alumni Association.
Dr. Snow is tenured Associate Professor of Communications at California State University, Fullerton on professional leave.
Sought Out Expert & Speaker ................................................................................
Dr. Snow is a frequent media source to popular and online media about American persuasion and propaganda with over 300 appearances, including CNN, ABC News and NPR. Nancy Snow in the press. She is a contributing writer to the Huffington Post, Common Dreams and O'Dwyer's PR Daily.
Dr. Snow has delivered over 80 guest lectures at many universities including the University of British Columbia, Naval Postgraduate School, Cal Tech, University of Michigan. See complete list of guest lectures
Snow's research, writing, and public speaking focus on U.S. foreign policy, American persuasion, influence, and propaganda, entertainment and media culture in American society, communications in the public interest, and the impact of global communications theory and practice on democratic participation and community development.
She is a strong advocate for media accountability and alternative/independent media, a result of her experience as a member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of the Cultural Environment Movement (CEM), a national coalition of more than 150 community-based organizations united to advance gender equity and general diversity in media employment, ownership, representation and perspective.
International Consultant ................................................................................
Snow's professional experience includes serving as a political consultant to The History Channel and Douglas, Cohn and Wolfe public relations. During Election 2000, Dr. Snow served as an online American Politics expert for Hungry Minds, Inc. of San Francisco, California, which also featured her in its national advertising campaign in USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. In 2002, Snow received a Knight Foundation Fellowship to the University of Mississippi for an inaugural workshop on "The Fourth Estate and the Third Sector: Press Coverage of Nonprofits." Government service includes two years in the Presidential Management Fellows Program as cultural affairs and educational exchange specialist at the U.S. Information Agency and refugee and migration analyst at the U.S. State Department. She was co-chair of the Japan-America Leadership Exchange Committee (JALEC) and traveled twice to Japan as USIA representative.
She has served as a public diplomacy advisor to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee overseeing changes in U.S. public diplomacy legislation since 9/11. Additionally, She has served as a faculty associate to Media Channel, the Institute for Public Accuracy, and the Mainstream Media Project.
Author ................................................................................
Snow is the author or co-editor of six books. Her latest is Persuader-in-Chief: Global Opinion and Public Diplomacy in the Age of Obama (2009). Snow is lead editor with Philip M. Taylor of the Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy (2009).
Engaging Professor & Media Star
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While serving as Associate Professor of Communications at California State University, Fullerton, Snow was voted one of the three most quoted "media stars" among the 900 full-time faculty. While Assistant Professor of Political Science at New England College, she was voted the "most enthusiastic and engaging professor" of 1999 and received membership in Who's Who Among America's Teachers. While on the New England College faculty, she served three years as Executive Director for Common Cause in New Hampshire (1997-2000), a nonpartisan citizens' advocacy organization that lobbies for greater accountability and ethics in government. From 1990-1995, she taught as Professorial Lecturer in intercultural communication, global communications, and peace and conflict resolution at American University's School of International Service. She also served as an international exchange administrator for the international nongovernmental organization Delphi International before joining USIA.
From November 2001 until August 2002, Snow served as a faculty associate to the UCLA Center for Experiential Education and Service Learning, where she taught media and social change as a lecturer in the Department of Sociology. From June 2000 until November 2001, Snow served as Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Communications and Community, a research and training organization that focuses on media coverage of diverse neighborhoods and cities.
She is a founding faculty associate to the Academic Brain Trust, a partnership of Free Press, media policymakers and activists.
Education ................................................................................
Snow received her Ph.D. in International Relations (magna cum laude) from the School of International Service at The American University, Washington, D.C., and B.A. in Political Science (summa cum laude) from Clemson University, South Carolina. She studied German politics and history at the University of California, Berkeley as a Fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service. A Fulbright Scholar to Germany, she completed graduate study in German and Political Science at the universities of Regensburg, Bayreuth, and Freiburg.
In fall 2007 Dr. Snow was a Senior Research Scholar and Visiting Professor in public diplomacy and strategic communication at Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing, China.
Fulbright Scholar ................................................................................
Her doctoral dissertation, "Fulbright Scholars as Cultural Mediators," earned an honorary "fourth best" dissertation of 1992 by the Speech Communication Association (now National Communication Association), Division of International and Intercultural Communication. She is currently in the process of updating the dissertation for publication.
Snow's Fulbright scholarship to the Federal Republic of Germany was at the height of the Cold War during the Reagan, Kohl and Thatcher years of the mid-80s. She was subsequently awarded a summer research fellowship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to study German history and language at the University of California, Berkeley. Doctoral studies in the School of International Service at The American University focused on international communication, intercultural communication, and peace and conflict resolution. Snow holds lifetime membership in the Fulbright Association and remains a strong advocate for cultural and educational exchange.
