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Eric Motley

Dr Eric Lamar Motley was born near Montgomery, Alabama, United States and grew up in the Madison Park community (Montgomery, AL). He currently serves as Vice President of the Aspen Institute and Executive Director of National Programs. He formerly served as Vice President and Managing Director of the Henry Crown Fellows Program as well as the Executive Director of the Aspen-Rockefeller Foundation’s Commission to Reform the Federal Appointments Process.Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, he served as director of the Office of International Visitors in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department. The office had a 100-person staff and a budget that exceeded $80 million. Prior to that, he had served as a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for Presidential Personnel, where he managed the appointment process in the White House for over 1,200 presidentially-appointed advisory board and commission positions. He joined the White House staff as Deputy Associate Director, Office of Presidential Personnel in 2001 at the age of 27 immediately after receiving his Ph.D. from St. Andrews University. He was the youngest appointee by the George W. Bush Administration.Eric Motley earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Philosophy from Samford University in 1996. As a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, he earned a Master of Letters in International Relations and a Ph.D. in International Relations as the John Steven Watson Scholar. Motley sits on numerous national and Washington, DC boards. He is very involved in the arts and humanities and is an avid book collector. In June 2006, his life story was featured in the Washington Post as part of the series “Being a Black Man in America.”