Thomas O. Melia (born May 28, 1957) currently serves as Washington director at PEN America. Previously, he served in the Obama Administration as USAID's Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia (2015–2017) and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the United States Department of State (2010–2015). Melia also served as Executive Director of Democracy International, an organization that designs, implements, and evaluates democracy and governance programs around the world. Additionally, he was the Deputy Executive Director of Freedom House, a human rights organization.

Education

Melia earned a BA from Johns Hopkins University in International Relations and an MA with a concentration in Africa Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in 1979. While in graduate school, Melia worked as an intern at the National Security Council at the White House, on Africa issues. During the summer of 1978, he worked at the U.S. embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Professional career

Melia began his career as a research assistant to U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1980 and eventually became Senior Legislative Assistant for foreign and defense policy. He left in 1986 to become associate director of the Free Trade Union Institute of the AFL-CIO (now the Solidarity Center). Melia served as NDI's Vice President for Programs from 1998 to 2001, designing and overseeing programs in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, the Near East, and South Asia. From 1988 to 1993, he directed the Central and Eastern Europe Programs, bringing the institute to the region before the fall of the Berlin Wall. From 1993 to 1996, he directed NDI's Middle East Programs and the Institute's Democratic Governance program. From 1999 to 2000, Melia was an adjunct professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he taught graduate courses about democracy promotion. He was a senior associate at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Inc. from 2001 to 2002 and research associate and director of research at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University from 2002 to 2005. He taught graduate-level courses at Georgetown's Department of Democracy and Governance Studies and in the International Development program at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies. He supervised research projects conducted by diplomats and military officers from the U.S. and abroad. At Georgetown, he was the principal investigator for reports on Congressional attitudes toward the State Department and terrorism's impact on diplomacy; he directed the first public opinion research conducted in post-Taliban Afghanistan in 2002 and in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq in 2003. From 2005 to 2010, Melia was deputy executive director of Freedom House. He testified before the United States Congress, advised the Swedish government, and in 2008 testified before two committees in the National Assembly of Hungary. He co-edited a report on rights and freedoms in the U.S. entitled Today’s American: How Free and he was the principal author of the Freedom House guide to assisting human rights defenders.

Foreign policy expertise

Melia is a regular contributor to the American Interest, publishing on current challenges to democracy globally. According to author Eric Bjornlund, Melia coined the phrase “democracy bureaucracy” in the mid-1990s to describe the proliferating community of agencies and NGOs inside and outside government involved in democracy promotion efforts. Melia subsequently published “The Democracy Bureaucracy” in the American Interest in 2006. News outlets such as CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post interview Melia on democratic issues, including President Barack Obama's policy toward Russia and the global downturn in political freedom.

Select publications, remarks, and research

Book reviews

Opinions

Awards and board affiliations