Voice of America Washington, DC 20547 Tel: (202) 619-2538 Fax: (202) 619-1241 E-mail: pubaff@ibb.gov

Sanford J. Ungar Sworn In As VOA's Twenty-Fourth Director

Washington, DC, July 20, 1999 -- Sanford J. Ungar was sworn in today by Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as the 24th Director of the Voice of America. As Director of VOA, Ungar will oversee more than 900 hours a week of VOA broadcasts in English and 52 other languages to some 91 million weekly listeners.

"I'm delighted to be back in the world of radio journalism," Ungar said. "Directing an organization with such a rich history and tradition of journalistic excellence and integrity is a great honor."

Prior to his appointment and since 1986, Ungar served as Dean of the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C.

Ungar's career in print and broadcast journalism spans more than a quarter of a century. Between 1980 and 1983, he was the host of several programs on National Public Radio, including the award-winning "All Things Considered." He has frequently appeared on public, commercial, and cable television. At American University, Ungar conducted the American Forum, a program often broadcast by C-SPAN.

The author of many magazine and newspaper articles on topics of political and international interest, Ungar has spoken frequently in the United States and abroad on U.S. foreign policy and domestic politics, freedom of expression, human rights, immigration, and journalism.

Ungar has several books to his credit, including Fresh Blood: The New American Immigrants; The Papers & The Papers: An Account of the Legal and Political Battle over the Pentagon Papers, which won the George Polk Award in 1973; Africa: The People and Politics of an Emerging Continent, Estrangement: America and the World; and FBI: An Uncensored Look Behind the Walls.

He has been the Washington editor of The Atlantic Monthly, managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine, and a staff writer for The Washington Post. He was a correspondent for United Press International in Paris and for Newsweek in Nairobi, and for many years contributed to The Economist.

Ungar is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, where he earned a B.A. in government. He later received a Master's degree in international history from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Wilkes University. He has traveled widely in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and East Asia, and is fluent in French and Spanish. He is a former board member of the International Human Rights Law Group, the National Immigration Forum, and the Public Diplomacy Foundation, among other non-profit organizations. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Society of Professional Journalists. He recently completed six-and-a-half years as a trustee of Georgetown Day School in Washington.

Ungar was born in 1945 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two children.

Contact: Joe O'Connell
Phone: 202-619-2538
E-mail: pubaff@voa.gov