Representative Pelosi appoints new Commissioner

Oct 13, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 13, 2004

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WASHINGTON - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has appointed Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou of Massachusetts to a two-year term on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Dr. Prodromou succeeds Commissioner Patti Chang.

"Dr. Prodromou brings to the Commission a distinguished record of scholarship in international relations," said Chair Preeta D. Bansal. "We look forward to her insights as we work to advance freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief globally. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Patti Chang for her contributions to the Commission over the past year."

Professor Prodromou is the Associate Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs and Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University. Prior to joining the faculty at Boston University, she taught at Princeton University in the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs. A regional expert on Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, Prodromou's scholarship and policy work concentrate on religion and international relations, nationalism and conflict resolution, and non-traditional security threats.

Prodromou has published articles and chapters in books in several languages in numerous academic and policy journals in the United States and Europe, including the Journal of Democracy, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Orbis, Social Compass, Survival, European Journal of Political Research, and Mediterranean Quarterly. She is currently working on two books, both forthcoming in 2005, on Orthodox Christianity, Civil Society and Democracy in Post-Communist Russia and Orthodox Christianity in American Public Life: The Challenges and Opportunities of Religious Pluralism in the 21st Century.

She has been a policy consultant to the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency. She has received numerous awards and grants, including research fellowships from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and Center for European Studies, New York University's Center for European Studies, and Princeton University's University Committee on Research in Humanities and Social Sciences. She is active and has held elected positions in many professional organizations, and is listed in Whose Who of American Women, 21st Edition of Outstanding Women of North America. She helped found and sat as Executive Director at the Cambridge Foundation for Peace, a non-profit, public charity dedicated to sustainable peace building in Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Prodromou holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as an M.A.L.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a B.A. in International Relations and History from Tufts University. Prodromou is married to Dr. Alexandros K. Kyrou, and they have one daughter, Sophia.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

Preeta D. Bansal,Chair
  • Felice D. Gaer,Vice ChairNina Shea,Vice ChairArchbishop Charles J. ChaputMichael CromartieKhaled Abou El FadlElizabeth H. ProdromouBishop Ricardo RamirezMichael K. YoungAmbassador John V. Hanford III,Ex-OfficioJoseph R. Crapa,Executive Director