Senior Official for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Liz Allen will travel to San José, Costa Rica, and Miami, Florida, from October 16-19, 2022. Her trip underscores the United States' strategic commitment to freedom of expression, to addressing critical gaps in the approach to countering state-sponsored propaganda and disinformation/misinformation worldwide, and to public diplomacy as a foundational component of U.S. foreign policy.
In San José, Senior Official Allen will give remarks and meet with participants to mark the formal expansion of the Digital Communications Network (DCN) to the Americas. This launch builds upon the work of the DCN in Europe and Africa which, over the last seven years, has created a global network that develops and shares digital content and resources to provide accurate and authentic reporting, strengthen independent journalism, support civil society, and advance democratic values. Senior Official Allen will also meet with Costa Rican government officials, alumni of U.S. exchange programs, and journalists while in San José.
In Miami, Senior Official Allen will meet with U.S. government officials at U.S. Southern Command. At Florida International University (FIU) - and following last week's signing of the State Department's Memorandum of Understanding with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, of which FIU is a member - she will meet with university administrators and Gilman Scholars.