WASHINGTON, Oct 13, 2011 — OutServe has announced that this weekend's OutServe Armed Forces Leadership Summit will welcome Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Douglas B. Wilson as the Keynote Speaker. Wilson will headline the OutServe National Dinner Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Nominated by President Obama on December 2, 2009 to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Douglas Wilson was confirmed to the position by the U.S. Senate on February 11, 2010. As the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Mr. Wilson serves as the principal staff advisor and assistant to the United States Secretary of Defense for public information, internal information, community relations, information training, and audiovisual matters in support of DoD activities, leading a worldwide public affairs community of several thousand military and civilian personnel. A full bio of Wilson is below.
"We are incredibly honored to have Secretary Wilson speak at our Summit," said Air Force 1st Lt. Josh Seefried, OutServe co-director. "He has served this country with distinction and honor and we are proud to welcome him."
The OutServe Armed Forces Leadership Summit will provide an international forum on creating an environment of respect in the military with regards to sexual orientation and gender identity, and provide the LGBT military community a venue for building professional networks, sharing best practices and formulating strategies that help build a stronger military community.
More information about the conference agenda is here: http://outserve.org/summit
OutServe is the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel that launched in 2010. With more than 4,000 members and 40 plus chapters worldwide, it is one of the largest LGBT employee resource groups in the world. OutServe works to support a professional network of LGBT military personnel and create an environment of respect in the military with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Nominated by President Obama on December 2, 2009 to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Douglas Wilson was confirmed to the position by the U.S. Senate on February 11, 2010. As the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Mr. Wilson serves as the principal staff advisor and assistant to the United States Secretary of Defense and United States Deputy Secretary of Defense for public information, internal information, community relations, information training, and audiovisual matters in support of DoD activities, leading a worldwide public affairs community of several thousand military and civilian personnel. He follows the Secretary's Principles of Information in providing defense department information to the public, the Congress and the media.
Mr. Wilson -- a native of Tucson, Arizona and a graduate of Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa) and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy -- previously served as Executive Vice President of the Howard Gilman Foundation, overseeing the development and implementation of the Foundation's domestic and international policy programs at White Oak. He has convened and led global cross-disciplinary meetings on issues including energy security, health and macroeconomics, women as leaders of change and media and policy; a series of bilateral meetings of U.S. thought leaders with counterparts from India, Russia, South Asia, Europe and Muslim-majority nations; and policy strategy sessions on domestic issues ranging from public diplomacy to foreign assistance to military families. Mr. Wilson is the immediate past President of The Leaders Project, the global successor generation leadership initiative which he co-founded in 2001 with former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen. He is also a co-founder of the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Initiative.
From 1997-1999, Mr. Wilson served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. He spent a year as National Political Director of the Democratic Leadership Council before returning to the Pentagon in the summer of 2000 to become Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, coordinating communications and long-range public affairs strategy on issues including defense reform, base closures, NATO expansion, and military quality of life. He was twice presented the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Pentagon's top civilian honor. From 1993-97, Mr. Wilson served as Director of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs and as Senior Advisor to the Director for the U.S. Information Agency, where he coordinated negotiations to consolidate international broadcasting.
Mr. Wilson began his career as a Foreign Service Information Officer, serving at U.S. diplomatic posts in Naples, Rome, and London — the latter as press and information officer during the period of the Iran hostage crisis. He later served as foreign policy advisor to former U.S. Senator Gary Hart, and as head of the international relations office of the City of Phoenix.
Mr. Wilson was the founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Public Diplomacy Collaborative at Harvard University. He has served on the Boards of Directors of Third Way, HDI, The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy, The Howard Gilman Foundation and the National Security Network.
