M. André Goodfriend was the Director of the State Department’s Office of eDIplomacy, and joined the Office in 2015 to coordinate drafting of the State Department’s 2016 Open Government Plan. He was a member of the Senior Foreign Service, with the rank of Minister Counselor.
Mr. Goodfriend joined the Department of State in 1987, and his overseas assignments included Israel, India, Russia and the UK. In Washington, D.C., he worked first on conflict prevention strategies within the International Organizations Bureau, and then, within the Bureau of Consular Affairs, he was responsible for the implementation of new technologies. Mr. Goodfriend has also served as a Regional Consular Officer, based in Frankfurt, Germany, providing policy and management guidance to consular officers in fifteen countries in Africa. His most recent overseas assignments have been as Consul General at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria, and as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest, Hungary.
Born in California and raised in Arizona, Mr. Goodfriend has studied Hungarian, Hebrew, French, Russian, Greek (classical and modern), Spanish, Hindi, Arabic and Yiddish. After receiving Bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy, Classical Greek, French and Radio-Television from the University of Arizona, he completed Master’s studies in Communication at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, followed by doctoral research at the City of London Polytechnic on governmental use of new media.
Areas of Expertise: Creating civil discourse, developing intercultural competence, and deploying humanistic thinking for the public good