Britta Bjornlund

Britta Bjornlund currently oversees programs for approximately 4,000 high school students including the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) and the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study programs (YES), among others. Prior to that, Britta was the Study of the U.S. Branch Chief for ten years where she created and oversaw the Mandela Washington Fellowship (YALI) and the YSEALI Academic Fellowship. Before joining State in 2009, Britta was the Executive Director of the International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation, she worked at the Open World Leadership Center of the Library of Congress, and she managed the development and technical assistance programs in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Britta authored four books on the Cold War and the Russian Revolution for middle- and high-school students.  She holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a bachelor’s degree in Russian from Williams College.