News Brief

Congratulations to Lia Miller and Erin Rattazzi, the Council's Davis Public Diplomacy Fellows for 2013-2014

Below are the biographies of Lia Miller and Rattazzi, as well as pictures from their graduation from the USC Center on Public Diplomacy's Summer Institute.

Lia Miller

Lia Miller began her current Washington assignment in January 2013 as a public affairs specialist in the Office for International Media Engagement in the Bureau of Public Affairs. In June 2013, she will head to her next assignment in the Operations Center as a watch officer. Prior to her assignment to Public Affairs, Ms. Miller served as the Foreign Assistance Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia managing the largest democratic transition assistance budget in the world. From 2009-2011, Ms. Miller was an advanced Arabic language student at both FSI in Arlington and the Tunis-based FSI field school. From 2007 to 2009, Ms. Miller served as the assistant general services officer in Managua, Nicaragua. Prior to that, her first posting was in Muscat, Oman where she served as the Acting Consular Chief and deputy public affairs officer in a rotational assignment. Ms. Miller is a graduate of Syracuse and Columbia University.


 

Erin Rattazzi

Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Erin Rattazzi has a bachelor of arts in English and a bachelor of arts in history from UCLA and a master of philosophy in justice and transformation, specializing in human rights, from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Before joining the State Department, Erin worked for Human Rights Watch in London, England for several years where she created and developed the “London Network,” a young professionals group mobilized to achieve outreach, fundraising and advocacy objectives. Erin had been living in London when terrorists launched a series of coordinated attacks using the public transportation system on July 7, 2005. It was shortly after these attacks that Erin began considering a job in the Foreign Service. Erin joined the State Department in 2008 where she spent a year learning Vietnamese before heading to her first post in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. While in Vietnam, she managed a S/GWI grant to support women’s rights and gender equality for a rural community and development center. After her tour in Vietnam, Erin served in Kabul, Afghanistan as assistant information officer. It was an eventful year in Afghanistan, which included attacks on the Embassy, one Presidential visit and two Secretarial visits. While in Afghanistan, as part of the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” campaign, Erin worked with the local videographer to film sixteen public service announcements featuring prominent and influential Afghans condemning gender-based violence.

Currently, as the public affairs officer in the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Erin leads the Department’s public diplomacy and public affairs work to advance Sudan and South Sudan policy and helps to align these efforts with the President’s strategic goals toward Sudan and South Sudan, focused on supporting the development of two viable states at peace internally and with each other. Erin speaks Vietnamese and Spanish.

Date Posted

Jun 6, 2013