John Sitilides - Definition and Overview

John Sitilides is Chairman of the Board of Advisors of the Woodrow Wilson Center Southeast Europe Project, which conducts public affairs programming and professional research on geopolitical and functional issues and interests spanning the eastern Mediterranean, Balkan, Black Sea, Caucasus, Middle East, and northern African regions.

Mr. Sitilides formerly served as Executive Director of the Western Policy Center, a Washington, D.C. international relations institute conducting analysis of U.S. foreign and security policies in the eastern Mediterranean and southern Balkans, which was merged into the Woodrow Wilson Center in December 2004. He founded the Western Policy Center in Washington, D.C., in 1998, and directed all aspects of strategic planning, policy analysis, government and corporate relations, financial management, and media communications.

Mr. Sitilides has been twice recognized by the U.S. Department of State for his expertise on American foreign policy, and has testified before Congress on U.S.-European relations. In September 2003, he was appointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce Joint Science and Technology Cooperation Advisory Council.

Mr. Sitilides is a regular speaker on foreign policy at the Pentagon’s National Defense University, the Foreign Service Institute, and the National Foreign Affairs Training Center, and has guest lectured or presented papers on regional and global issues at Oxford University, Yale University, George Mason University, the University of Texas School of Law, the Graduate Center - City University of New York, and other academic institutions.

A member of the National Speakers Association and frequent media commentator, Mr. Sitilides has been interviewed by CNN, CNN International, National Public Radio, BBC News, syndicated radio networks, and other U.S. and international broadcast media. His op-eds have been published by The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Sacramento Bee, and other U.S. newspapers, and he has been quoted and referenced by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The International Herald Tribune, and other U.S., European, and international print media.

Mr. Sitilides is a member of the Wilson Council, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C., the Columbia University Club, and Leadership 100, an Orthodox Christian endowment fund. He is also an International Host at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Sitilides was a government relations strategist in Sacramento, California. From 1985 to 1993, he served as a senior advisor to U.S. Senator Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-NY) for communications and legislative affairs, and was Communications Manager on the Senator’s successful 1992 re-election campaign. In 1988, he managed the successful election campaign of New York State Senator Serphin Maltese (R-Queens).

Mr. Sitilides received his Master’s Degree in International Affairs at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs in 1986, with specialization in International Security Policy, International Political Economy, and Western European Affairs, and his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Queens College in 1983. Born in New Jersey and raised in New York, he now lives in McLean, Virginia with his wife Angela, an attorney and successful businesswoman, and their three sons Ellis, Ian, and Cole.