Our Mission
The Washington International Diplomatic Academy (WIDA) is an independent organization that provides practical professional training in diplomacy and international affairs — both in person and online — to students, recent graduates and professionals in government, NGOs and the private sector. We teach what’s not in the books, so we don’t confer academic degrees.
Read more about what inspired WIDA’s mission in Executive Director Nicholas Kralev’s New York Times article “Diplomats Are Made, Not Born.”
LEADERSHIP

Nicholas Kralev
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Kralev is a former Financial Times and Washington Times correspondent. He witnessed firsthand the conduct of American diplomacy while accompanying four U.S. secretaries of state on their travels around the world — Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright. He is the author of America’s Other Army and Diplomats in the Trenches.
INSTRUCTORS
Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley
Ambassador William J. Burns
Thomas Countryman
Ambassador Cindy Courville
Ambassador Glyn Davies
Ambassador Shaun Donnelly
Ambassador Daniel Fried
Ambassador Janice Jacobs
Ambassador Jimmy Kolker
Ambassador Lisa Kubiske
Ambassador Thomas Miller
Ambassador Thomas Pickering
Ambassador Charles Ray
Ambassador Eunice Reddick
Ambassador Francis Ricciardone
Ambassador Douglas Silliman
Ambassador Kris Urs
Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne
Ambassador Bruce Wharton
Ambassador James Zumwalt