Professional Affiliation

Former Senior Advisor to the President for Alumni Relations, Woodrow Wilson Center; Former Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Woodrow Wilson Center

Expert Bio

Michael Van Dusen was the Senior Advisor to the President for Alumni Relations of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars from 2014-2016. He held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from 1999-2014.  

Prior to his time as the Wilson Center, he worked for close to thirty years in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving as staff consultant and then staff director of the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, then Chief of Staff of the Committee on Foreign Affairs; and finally as Democratic Chief of Staff of the Committee on International Relations. 

He has traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf, and has written widely on Middle Eastern affairs and on Congress’s role in foreign policy.  He has been published in media outlets such as The Middle East Journal, Political Elites in the Middle East, the New York Times, The Middle East Journal, and the International Journal of the Middle East.  Mr. Van Dusen holds a doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.