Jed Willard

Adjunct Fellow

Expertise: Public Diplomacy, Strategic Communication, International Political Economy, History, Comparative Religion, Policy Analysis, Political Science

Jed Willard is Director of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Center for Global Engagement at Adams House, Harvard University. The FDR Center honors the 32nd American President’s legacy by pursuing solutions to current global challenges while keeping in mind their historical origins. Over the past decade, Willard has been pleased to consult to a number of governments and other international actors, helping them to understand prevalent and emerging narratives – the drivers of public opinion and sentiment – and creating strategies and structures to effectively engage citizens around the globe. His current efforts focus on adaptation to climate change, coping with information warfare, and revitalizing faith in the post-Enlightenment tradition. He is also doing some work on the Arctic, the Transatlantic Alliance, and the linkages between cultural and economic diplomacy.

Willard is also Founding Director emeritus of the Public Diplomacy Collaborative at Harvard Kennedy School, applying social sciences to international communication challenges and bringing together public diplomacy scholars and practitioners across sectors, disciplines, and national boundaries. Earlier he was a founding partner and board member at LanguageCorps, where he launched sixteen work-abroad programs on four continents, with the aim of turning young Americans into citizen diplomats. Willard’s other experience includes media relations and market analysis, and he’s also an amateur forester and Cajun cook.

Willard is a native of New Orleans, with a Bachelors Degree in History and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard.