Richard Stengel

Stengel was born in New York City into a Jewish family, and raised in Westchester County where he attended Scarsdale High School. He attended Princeton University and played on the Princeton Tigers basketball team as part of the 1975 National Invitation Tournament. He graduated magna cum laude in 1977. After college, he won a Rhodes Scholarship and studied English and history at Christ Church, Oxford. ==Career==

Early career Stengel joined Time in 1981 Stengel left Time in 1999, to become a senior advisor and chief speechwriter for Bill Bradley who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for the 2000 presidential election. He later held several other roles at Time, including a period as national editor of the magazine. to become the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a museum and education center in Philadelphia on March 1, 2004. a founding partnership with Constitution High School, a School District of Philadelphia public school for students interested in history and government; summer teacher institutes; and brought the Liberty Medal to the organization. Managing editor of Time In 2006, Stengel once again returned to Time, this time as managing editor of the magazine. The appointment was announced on May 17, 2006, by the editor in chief of Time Inc., John Huey, and he officially entered the role on June 15, 2006 His first major initiative was to change the magazine's news-stand date to Friday, starting in early 2007. Following this, Stengel implemented an ambitious graphic redesign and changes in the magazine's content, stating that he wanted the magazine to be more selective and to give the reader "knowledge" rather than "undigested information". He increased reporting on war and politics. In his first year as managing editor, he selected "You" – short for user-generated-content – as Time's "Person of the Year", which was the subject of much media coverage and debate. In 2010, Time chose another social media-oriented "Person of the Year", Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. In 2008, Stengel approved the changing of Times emblematic red border for only the second time since its adoption. The border was changed to green for a special issue focused on the environment. The cover, which included an altered version of Joe Rosenthal's iconic Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima photograph—substituting a tree for the American flag — was criticized by some veterans groups. Explaining the analogy, Stengel stated his belief that there "needs to be an effort along the lines of preparing for World War II to combat global warming and climate change". Under his leadership, Time has reported on significant world events such as its coverage of the Iraq war, which he describes in an editorial as necessary in order to remind people not to "turn away", and the 2008 presidential campaign. Following the election, president-elect Barack Obama was selected by Stengel as "Person of the Year" for Obama's 14th appearance on Times cover in 2008. Stengel writes editorials for Time, including a 2010 piece explaining their use on Time's cover of a portrait of an 18-year-old Afghan woman whose nose and ears had been cut off by the Taliban as a punishment for running away from her in-laws. For a Time cover story in December 2010, he interviewed WikiLeaks spokesperson Julian Assange over Skype, in which Assange called for the resignation of United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Stengel was listed as number 41 on Newsweeks 2010 "Power 50" list in November 2010. He regularly appears on CNN In 2012, Stengel received a News & Documentary Emmy Award for his work as executive producer on Time.com's Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience and, on behalf of Time Magazine, Stengel accepted the "Magazine of the Year" award at the National Magazine Awards. In May of the same year, Stengel interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a cover story of his that referred to Netanyahu as the "King of Israel". In November 2012, Stengel conducted an interview with Mohamed Morsi after he became Egypt's president. Among other coverage, the interview drew media attention for Morsi's remarks on the 1968 science fiction film Planet of the Apes. On September 12, 2013, Stengel announced he would be leaving TIME magazine for a role as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Government service Stengel served as President Obama's Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs from 2014 to 2016. Stengel led the department's counter-disinformation efforts, which included managing State's counter-ISIS messaging center, The Center for Strategic Counter Terrorism Communications, and started the first counter Russian disinformation hub at the department. He also helped create a joint effort between the Peace Corps and the State Department called “English for All,” a whole-of-government effort to teach English around the world. In December 2016, Stengel became the longest serving Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy in American history. In November 2020, Stengel was named a member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Other Stengel was a strategic adviser at Snap, Inc. from 2017 to 2021, working primarily on communications. Stengel is currently an on-air analyst for MSNBC and NBC who comments on political news of the day. Stengel is also a member of the board of directors of CARE, the global humanitarian and poverty relief organization. ==National Service Movement==

In September 2007, Stengel wrote a Time cover story called "The Case For National Service" in which he argued that Americans needed to redouble their efforts to get involved in community service and volunteerism, and that the presidential candidates needed to make the issue a top priority in the 2008 presidential campaign. Through this essay, he became involved with national service groups Be the Change, City Year, Civic Enterprises, and others to form ServiceNation, a coalition of more than 100 organizations dedicated to promoting national service and volunteerism. ServiceNation announced that it had secured both U.S. presidential candidates to participate in Presidential Forum on National Service at Columbia University on September 11, 2008. Stengel served as co-moderator of the forum, along with PBS journalist Judy Woodruff, and both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain answered questions in front of a live audience at Columbia University about their plans for national service. On September 12, 2008, Stengel was a featured speaker at the ServiceNation Summit in New York, along with Caroline Kennedy, Senator Hillary Clinton, First Lady Laura Bush and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In February 2009, he testified alongside Usher Raymond, former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford and others, in front of the United States House Committee on Education and Labor about the importance of national service, leading to the passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act (H.R. 1388). Among other provisions, the bill helped to establish a Summer of Service Program, increase the number of AmeriCorps opportunities and establish a nationwide Call to Service Campaign. Stengel was awarded Citizen of the Year at the Annual National Conference on Citizenship on September 17, 2010. He has also been presented with the 2010 Lifetime of Idealism Award, awarded to him by City Year Washington, D.C. for "his commitment to promoting and expanding opportunities for Americans to serve". ==Published works==

Stengel has authored several books. His first was January Sun: One Day, Three Lives, A South African Town, a non-fiction work about the lives of three men in rural South Africa, published in 1990. Stengel later served as co-producer of the 1996 documentary film Mandela, which was nominated for an Academy Award. ''Mandela's Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love and Courage'' was released in March 2010 and is based on Stengel's personal interactions with Nelson Mandela. The book drew praise from former U.S. President Bill Clinton, as well as Deepak Chopra and Henry Louis Gates Jr. In 2019, Stengel published Information Wars, which has been praised by Madeleine Albright, Walter Isaacson and Jon Meacham. It tells the story of his efforts to combat both Russian disinformation and ISIS messaging from the State Department, and the eventual formation of the Global Engagement Center, tasked with fighting the global epidemic of disinformation. The book's final chapter details what can be done about disinformation. The podcast tells the story of Mandela's life, the making of Long Walk to Freedom, and the unusual friendship between Mandela and Stengel. AudioFile called it “a compelling work that makes history come alive.” ==Personal life==

Stengel is married to Mary Pfaff, a native of South Africa. They have two sons, Gabriel and Anton. ==Honorary degrees==

Stengel delivered the commencement address for and received honorary doctorates from Wittenberg University in 2009, Wheaton College in 2011 and Butler University in 2012. ==References==