International Broadcasting and Communication in the Era of Internet, Facebook and Twittering

Alan Heil is a former Deputy Director of the Voice of America (often known as the VOA), the nation’s largest overseas publicly funded broadcasting network, reaching 125 million people in 44 languages each week.  During his career of many years with VOA, Mr. Heil was Bureau Chief based in Lebanon, Egypt and Greece, covering an area that ranged from Morocco to Afghanistan.  He later served as Chief of News and Current Affairs and Deputy Director of Programs.  For a time, he also served as Acting Director of VOA.  He retired in 1998. 

In subsequent years, Mr.Heil has written numerous articles or columns on international broadcasting in the Middle East, the Balkans and Africa. He was an international observer of elections in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo in 1998 – 2000, and a member of Prebyterian peacemaking study missions to Bosnia and the Middle East.

He is the author of Voice of America: A History, published by Columbia University Press in 2003 and 2006. The book, a comprehensive history of the VOA, was widely reviewed in major publications and hailed by the late Walter Cronkite as celebrating “this nation’s dedication to the practical application of its democratic foundations – our freedom of speech and press.”  He is also the editor of Local Voices/Global Perspectives: Challenges Ahead for U.S. International Media, published by the Public Diplomacy Council and George Washington University in 2008.

Alan Heil is a graduate of Duke University and pursued graduate studies at George Washington and American Universities, both in Washington, DC, and at the University of Maryland at its branch in Athens, Greece.  He is married to Dorothy Finnegan Heil and has three daughters.