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VOA Directors


The Voice of America's first organizational home was the U.S. Foreign Information Service, which later became the overseas branch of the Office of War Information. FIS' first director was Robert E. Sherwood; Joseph Barnes was his deputy and chief of the New York Office.

John Houseman, VOA's first Director: 1942-1943
John Houseman, VOA's first Director: 1942-1943

John HousemanFebruary 1942 - July 1943
Louis G. CowanAugust 1943 - August 1945
John OgilvieSeptember 1945 - January 1946
Charles ThayerJanuary 1948 - October 1949
Foy David KohlerOctober 1949 - September 1952
Alfred MortonOctober 1952 - April 1953
Leonard EriksonJuly 1953 - April 1954
John R. PoppeleMay 1954 - July 1956
Robert E. BurtonJuly 1956 - July 1958
Henry Loomis July 1958 - March 1965
John ChancellorAugust 1965 - June 1967
John Charles DalySeptember 1967 - June 1968
Kenneth R. GiddensDecember 1982 - September 1984
R. Peter Straus July 1977 - October 1979
Mary BittermanFebruary 4, 1980 - January 20, 1981
James ConklingAugust 1981 - March 1982
John HughesMarch 1982 - August 1982
Kenneth TomlinsonDecember 1982 - September 1984
Gene PellJune 1985 - October 1985
Richard W. CarlsonNovember 1986 - September 1991
Chase UntermeyerAugust 26, 1991 - January 20, 1993
Geoffrey CowanMarch 1994 - November 1996
Evelyn S. LiebermanMarch 1997 - May 1, 1999
Sanford J. UngarJune 23, 1999 - June 29, 2001
Robert R. ReillyOctober 12, 2001 - August 29, 2002
David S. JacksonSeptember 3, 2002 - October 27, 2006
Dan AustinOctober 29, 2006 - June 7, 2011
David EnsorJune 8, 2011 - May 29, 2015
Amanda BennettApril 18, 2016 - June 16, 2020
Robert ReillyDecember 7, 2020 - January 21, 2021

To find out more about our past directors, click here.

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