Ambassador Cynthia P. Schneider, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, teaches, publishes, and organizes initiatives in the area of diplomacy and culture. Ambassador Schneider co-directs the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown, a joint signature initiative between Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and College of Arts and Sciences, with the mission of humanizing global politics through the power of performance. ​

​Additionally, Ambassador Schneider co-directs the Los Angeles-based MOST Resource (Muslims on Screen and Television) and the Timbuktu Renaissance, a Mali-based platform for countering extremism and promoting peace and development through a focus on culture. Both initiatives grew out of her work leading the Arts and Culture Dialogue Initiative within the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. ​

​Ambassador Schneider publishes and speaks frequently on topics related to arts, culture, and media and international affairs. Her writings range from op eds articles for USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, CNN, and Foreign Policy to policy papers for Brookings; she has spoken at TED and TEDx, as well as at universities, conferences, and festivals around the world.​

 Ambassador Schneider teaches courses in Diplomacy and Culture in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, where, from 1984-2005, she was a member of the art history faculty, and published on Rembrandt and seventeenth century Dutch art. She also organized exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. From 1998-2001, she served as US Ambassador to the Netherlands, during which time she led initiatives in cultural diplomacy, biotechnology, cyber security, and education. Cynthia has BA and PhD from Harvard University.