Professor of Practice
Director – Communications and Community Affairs
Brad Minnick comes to the Africa Center from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where he was project director for the Center’s Public Diplomacy initiative. He is an internationally recognized management and communications advisor and principal at HKS Global, a Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm.
Brad is a former Director of the Office of International Visitors at the U.S. Department of State and served five years as Chief Executive Officer of the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL), a non-partisan international exchange organization with programs around the world.
As a former managing director for Weber Shandwick Worldwide, one of the world’s largest public relations firms, he has trained government officials, NGO leaders, political activists and businesspersons around the globe in management and communications strategy and tactics. A former advisor to the United Nations Development Programme and the Parliament and Government of Romania, he has lectured extensively on political communication and democratic development, led seminars on communications and policy issues at Harvard University and participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Earlier in his career Brad served as a congressional press secretary, national political party communications advisor and local television political commentator. He was Deputy Chief Secretary to the Governor of Massachusetts and Vice President of the Massachusetts International Trade Council. He has traveled extensively throughout the world.
Brad holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a BA in Political Science from American University in Washington, D.C.
