September Fellows Luncheon with Ambassador Alina Romanowski

*This event is only open to our 2025-2026 Fellows 

The World Affairs Council Fellows Program offers a unique professional development opportunity to a small group of greater Seattle's business and community leaders. The Fellows convene monthly for breakfast discussions with carefully selected high-caliber international experts who offer unparalleled insight into current global issues, in addition to meeting throughout the year for additional Council events and dedicated networking opportunities.

About Our Speaker

Ambassador Alina Romanowski brings more than four decades of distinguished public service to the World Affairs Councils of America, with deep leadership experience across diplomacy, defense, intelligence, and international development. Most recently, she served as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq (2022–2024) and Kuwait (2020–2022), where she helped advance key diplomatic and security priorities during a period of regional transformation. Throughout her career, Ambassador Romanowski has led efforts to build bridges across sectors and borders.

At the State Department, she served in senior roles including Principal Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, and Deputy Assistant Secretary in both the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. She was also the founding director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative Office—an early example of her commitment to partnerships rooted in education, dialogue, and long-term engagement. Her public service also includes leadership roles at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Defense, where she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs and founded the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University.

Ambassador Romanowski’s public service has been recognized with numerous awards, including a Presidential Distinguished Rank Award and multiple honors from the State Department, Defense Department, and CIA. She holds both an M.A. and B.A. from the University of Chicago and studied at Tel Aviv University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and speaks French, with additional studies in Arabic and Hebrew.