Ambassador J. Adam Ereli
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs
Ambassador Adam Ereli has served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs since January 18, 2011.
The mission of the Bureau is to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives through educational and cultural programs that enhance mutual understanding between the people of the United States and people of other nations. As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Ambassador Ereli manages these programs, which comprise a budget of $635 million and a staff of over 400 employees.
Ambassador Ereli has worked extensively as a diplomat abroad and at senior levels in the Department of State in Washington. He was Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain from 2007-2011. From 2006-2007, he served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy. Ambassador Ereli was Deputy Spokesman of the State Department from 2003-2006 and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Qatar from 2000-2003. Other overseas assignments have included Yemen, Ethiopia, Syria, and Egypt.
Ambassador Ereli earned a Bachelor's degree from Yale University and a Master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Before joining the diplomatic service, Ambassador Ereli lived in Paris, France, where he worked as a journalist and the director of a human rights NGO. Ambassador Ereli speaks French and Arabic.
Meghann Curtis
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Academic Programs
Ms. Meghann Curtis serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Academic Programs at the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) where she oversees all academic programs sponsored by the Department, including the Fulbright Program, the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, Teacher Exchange Programs, English Language Programs.
Ms. Curtis is also responsible for international student advising and marketing of American higher education resources through EducationUSA's network of offices around the world. ECA’s Office of Academic Exchange Programs, Office of English Language Programs, and Office of Global Educational Programs report through DAS Curtis.
Prior to joining ECA, Ms. Curtis served as Senior Advisor in the Office of the Counselor and Chief-of-Staff at the Department of State. In this capacity, DAS Curtis advised Secretary of State Clinton and the Counselor and Chief-of-Staff on international development policies and strategies. Her duties included serving as the Director of the Department’s post-earthquake Haiti Task Force and heading the Department’s implementation team for the development components of the Secretary’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and the President’s Policy Directive on Global Development. Previously, DAS Curtis worked in the Secretary’s Policy Planning Office, the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, and the Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance. Before coming to the State Department, she worked as a journalist in South Africa, an urban planner for the City of New York, and a Policy Director for the New York City Council.
Ms. Curtis holds a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a Bachelor’s Degree in Urban Planning from Vassar College. She is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Robin Lerner
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Private Sector Exchange
Ms. Lerner serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Private Sector Exchange at the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). In this capacity, she oversees the Exchange Visitor (J-1 visa) Program, which annually brings some 300,000 foreign citizens to the United States to study, build skills and teach.
Ms. Lerner, a lawyer by training and a member of the California bar, joined the majority staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as Counsel in March, 2009. In this position, she handled human rights, refugees, migration, trafficking in persons, gender equity and public diplomacy for Chairman John Kerry. Prior to the Committee, she worked for the Department of State for nearly seven years. During that time, she was a Senior Reporting Officer for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; Senior Congressional Liaison for the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, and was posted to U.S. Embassy Cairo as Deputy Press Attache. She also worked at U.S. Embassy Baghdad and Regional Office Kirkuk in 2004 and 2005. Prior to the Department of State, she was a Legal and Human Rights Advisor for OSCE Missions in Croatia and Kosovo, where she handled minority and property issues as well as human trafficking and women’s legal rights. She was a long-term election supervisor in Bosnia in 1997 and Croatia in 1999 for the OSCE. Domestically, she spent a year as the Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Mississippi.
Lee Satterfield
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Professional and Cultural Exchanges
Ms. Lee Satterfield serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Professional and Cultural Exchanges at the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). She oversees a broad range of professional, cultural, youth, and sports exchange programs to increase mutual understanding between Americans and people around the world.
Programs include the International Visitor Leadership Program, which for 70 years has brought established or potential foreign leaders and opinion makers to the United States to meet with their professional counterparts and to experience America firsthand, as well as initiatives supported by the Office of Citizen Exchanges such as American Music Abroad, Youth Leadership Programs, and TechWomen, a professional exchange for women technology and innovation leaders. Led by Ms. Satterfield, the Office of Professional and Cultural Exchanges also supports major public-private partnerships, including the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists and the U.S. State Department and espnW Global Sports Mentoring Program.
Prior to her current position, Ms. Satterfield served as Deputy Chief of Protocol of the United States. In this role, Ms. Satterfield oversaw the visits of chiefs of state, heads of government and other international dignitaries who visited the United States to meet with the President, Vice President or Secretary of State. She also oversaw the Diplomatic Partnerships Division which conducts outreach to the Diplomatic Corps based in Washington, DC and Presidential Delegations sent to attend official ceremonies abroad representing the President.
Before serving in the Office of the Chief of Protocol, she lived abroad with her family in London, England for two years. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, she served in the Clinton Administration in several capacities. She was the Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff for The White House Office of Public Liaison, Special Assistant to the President and Presidential Scheduler for President Clinton and Scheduler for Vice President Gore.
Following her service in the Clinton Administration, she was Director of Convention Planning for the Democratic National Convention Committee where she oversaw the site selection process for the 2004 Democratic National Convention held in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ms. Satterfield is a native of South Carolina and graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. She is married to Patrick Steel. They reside in Washington, DC and have two sons.