Meet the Director
Dr. William Youmans
William Youmans was appointed director of the Institute for Public Diplomacy and International Affairs, effective January 1, 2022.
Youmans is an associate professor at the George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. Broadly interested in questions of transnationalism, power and communication, his primary research interests include global news, law and politics. His other areas of interest include researching terrorism, American international broadcasting, Middle East politics and Arab-American studies.
Youmans has written a book, Unlikely Audience: Al Jazeera’s Struggle in America (Oxford UP, 2017), about the Qatari news network’s efforts to gain a share of the news market in the United States, 2006-2016. He has been quoted in articles that ran in Salon, Washington Post, Newsweek, Variety and The New York Times, among others. He was a guest on radio and television programs on CBC Radio, WAMU/NPR, Headline News, Al Jazeera English and ARD. He wrote a regular column for the Gulf News, but has also been published in the Washington Post, Middle East Report, and Nieman Journalism Lab.
Yvonne Oh
Program Coordinator
Yvonne Oh is the coordinator for the Institute, the MA in Global Communication program, and the Gender Equality Initiative (GEIA) at the Elliott School of International Affairs.
Prior to joining GW in 2018, Yvonne was a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She has been a journalist and has worked in communications development with a regional non-profit.
Yvonne is pursuing her MBA at the George Washington School of Business.