Thomas O. Melia is Washington Director of PEN America, the writers' organization promoting free expression in the United States and worldwide. He served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, responsible for Europe and Eurasia, south and central Asia, and the Middle East, and later as Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia in the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) until January 2017.
Melia has also served as Executive Director of Democracy International, Deputy Executive Director of Freedom House, Vice President for Programs at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and Associate Director of the Solidarity Center. Melia is a monthly columnist for The American Interest and chair of the board of the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED). He has taught at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Service, Georgetown University, and his alma mater, The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.