Navigating Iran & the Middle East: Insights with Amb. (ret.) Alina Romanowski – SOLD OUT
Event Description
SOLD OUT
Join WorldDenver’s Speaker series with Ambassador (ret.) Alina Romanowski, a distinguished diplomat whose more than 40-year career has helped shape U.S. foreign policy and national security across the Middle East and beyond.
Having recently concluded her tenure as the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq — and previously serving as Ambassador to Kuwait — Ambassador Romanowski brings unparalleled, “on-the-ground” expertise to this timely conversation. She will move beyond the breaking news cycle to explore the deeper forces shaping Iran and the broader Middle East: the historical context beneath today’s conflict, the evolving status of military and diplomatic efforts, and the long-term implications for energy markets, global trade, regional alliances, and U.S. foreign policy.
The discussion will be moderated by Indira Lakshmanan, a veteran foreign correspondent and editor and host of NPR’s Here and Now podcast. Having reported from more than 80 countries, Lakshmanan will guide a rigorous and engaging conversation that gets to the heart of the issues shaping the region today.
Special thanks to our Travel Sponsor:
Tickets SOLD OUT
Be sure to log in to view Annual Supporter ticket prices.
General Admission: $40
Annual Supporters: $30
Young Professionals: $20
Event Agenda:
5:45 p.m. | Doors open
6:00 p.m. | Registration, networking & refreshments
6:30 p.m. | Speaker program
8:00 p.m. | Event concludes
About Our Speaker:
Ambassador (ret.) Alina Romanowski, Former Ambassador to Iraq & Kuwait
Ambassador Alina Romanowski brings more than four decades of distinguished public service to the World Affairs Councils of America, with deep leadership experience across diplomacy, defense, intelligence, and international development. Most recently, she served as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq (2022–2024) and Kuwait (2020–2022), where she helped advance key diplomatic and security priorities during a period of regional transformation. Throughout her career, Ambassador Romanowski has led efforts to build bridges across sectors and borders.
At the State Department, she served in senior roles including Principal Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, and Deputy Assistant Secretary in both the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. She was also the founding director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative Office—an early example of her commitment to partnerships rooted in education, dialogue, and long-term engagement. Her public service also includes leadership roles at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Defense, where she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs and founded the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University.
Ambassador Romanowski’s public service has been recognized with numerous awards, including a Presidential Distinguished Rank Award and multiple honors from the State Department, Defense Department, and CIA. She holds both an M.A. and B.A. from the University of Chicago and studied at Tel Aviv University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and speaks French, with additional studies in Arabic and Hebrew.
About Our Moderator:
Indira Lakshmanan is a host of NPR’s podcast, Here & Now. A veteran foreign correspondent and political reporter with decades of experience covering global events and U.S. policy, Lakshmanan has previously contributed to numerous NPR shows as a guest host and journalist, including 1A, On Point, Weekend Edition and Here & Now.
During more than 30 years of award winning journalism experience, she has embedded with pirates in the Philippines, Maoist rebels in Nepal, and Khmer Rouge holdouts in Cambodia. Her reporting exposed child labor in Bolivia, illegal logging in the Amazon, and helped end the incarceration of innocent children in Nepal.
She has interviewed world leaders and celebrities, hit the campaign trail, crisscrossed the world with U.S. presidents and secretaries of state, and spent a dozen years based overseas. Previously, she was the ideas and opinions editor at U.S. News & World Report and led the organization’s effort to showcase a wide range of perspectives.
Her career has spanned six continents, reporting and editing for national newspapers and magazines in Washington D.C. and Boston, two global wire services, radio, TV, and podcasts. She’s served in prominent editorial and host roles for many major media organizations including The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, The Boston Globe, National Geographic, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. She began her career as an international correspondent for NPR.
Note: As a nonpartisan convener of global affairs programming, WorldDenver provides an unbiased forum for experts, world leaders, diplomats, and representatives from the public and private sectors to share their expertise and views on a broad spectrum of issues that matter to the world. We aim for our events to inspire curiosity and further reading, discussion, and civic engagement among our members and the Denver community on the global issues that we present.
SOLD OUT
Join WorldDenver’s Speaker series with Ambassador (ret.) Alina Romanowski, a distinguished diplomat whose more than 40-year career has helped shape U.S. foreign policy and national security across the Middle East and beyond.
Having recently concluded her tenure as the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq — and previously serving as Ambassador to Kuwait — Ambassador Romanowski brings unparalleled, “on-the-ground” expertise to this timely conversation. She will move beyond the breaking news cycle to explore the deeper forces shaping Iran and the broader Middle East: the historical context beneath today’s conflict, the evolving status of military and diplomatic efforts, and the long-term implications for energy markets, global trade, regional alliances, and U.S. foreign policy.
The discussion will be moderated by Indira Lakshmanan, a veteran foreign correspondent and editor and host of NPR’s Here and Now podcast. Having reported from more than 80 countries, Lakshmanan will guide a rigorous and engaging conversation that gets to the heart of the issues shaping the region today.
Special thanks to our Travel Sponsor:
Tickets SOLD OUT
Be sure to log in to view Annual Supporter ticket prices.
General Admission: $40
Annual Supporters: $30
Young Professionals: $20
Event Agenda:
5:45 p.m. | Doors open
6:00 p.m. | Registration, networking & refreshments
6:30 p.m. | Speaker program
8:00 p.m. | Event concludes
About Our Speaker:
Ambassador (ret.) Alina Romanowski, Former Ambassador to Iraq & Kuwait
Ambassador Alina Romanowski brings more than four decades of distinguished public service to the World Affairs Councils of America, with deep leadership experience across diplomacy, defense, intelligence, and international development. Most recently, she served as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq (2022–2024) and Kuwait (2020–2022), where she helped advance key diplomatic and security priorities during a period of regional transformation. Throughout her career, Ambassador Romanowski has led efforts to build bridges across sectors and borders.
At the State Department, she served in senior roles including Principal Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, and Deputy Assistant Secretary in both the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. She was also the founding director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative Office—an early example of her commitment to partnerships rooted in education, dialogue, and long-term engagement. Her public service also includes leadership roles at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Defense, where she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs and founded the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University.
Ambassador Romanowski’s public service has been recognized with numerous awards, including a Presidential Distinguished Rank Award and multiple honors from the State Department, Defense Department, and CIA. She holds both an M.A. and B.A. from the University of Chicago and studied at Tel Aviv University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and speaks French, with additional studies in Arabic and Hebrew.
About Our Moderator:
Indira Lakshmanan is a host of NPR’s podcast, Here & Now. A veteran foreign correspondent and political reporter with decades of experience covering global events and U.S. policy, Lakshmanan has previously contributed to numerous NPR shows as a guest host and journalist, including 1A, On Point, Weekend Edition and Here & Now.
During more than 30 years of award winning journalism experience, she has embedded with pirates in the Philippines, Maoist rebels in Nepal, and Khmer Rouge holdouts in Cambodia. Her reporting exposed child labor in Bolivia, illegal logging in the Amazon, and helped end the incarceration of innocent children in Nepal.
She has interviewed world leaders and celebrities, hit the campaign trail, crisscrossed the world with U.S. presidents and secretaries of state, and spent a dozen years based overseas. Previously, she was the ideas and opinions editor at U.S. News & World Report and led the organization’s effort to showcase a wide range of perspectives.
Her career has spanned six continents, reporting and editing for national newspapers and magazines in Washington D.C. and Boston, two global wire services, radio, TV, and podcasts. She’s served in prominent editorial and host roles for many major media organizations including The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, The Boston Globe, National Geographic, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. She began her career as an international correspondent for NPR.
Note: As a nonpartisan convener of global affairs programming, WorldDenver provides an unbiased forum for experts, world leaders, diplomats, and representatives from the public and private sectors to share their expertise and views on a broad spectrum of issues that matter to the world. We aim for our events to inspire curiosity and further reading, discussion, and civic engagement among our members and the Denver community on the global issues that we present.