Virtual Workshop: Twitter as a Networking Tool for International Affairs

Carl Mercer

Communications and Campaign Adviser to the President of the UNGA

United Nations General Assembly

Carl Mercer advises on communications and supports speechwriting in the Office of the President of the 75th session of the General Assembly. A Canadian, Carl previously provided communications support to the 73rd President of the General Assembly and was responsible for the ‘Play it Out’ campaign to tackle plastic pollution.

In addition to his work in the Office of the President of the General Assembly, Carl has spent seven years with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Most recently, Carl worked with the Media and Advocacy Team in UNDP’s Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy. Prior to this Carl was the agency’s  communications focal point for climate change, sustainable energy and disaster risk reduction.

Carl has previously worked for non-governmental organizations in Angola, Chad, Ethiopia, France, Indonesia, Liberia, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, and the United States.

Carl received a Bachelors in Political Science from Memorial University of Newfoundland, as well as a Masters in International Relations, Conflict and Human Rights, from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Alexis Wichowski

Adjunct Associate Professor

Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs

Alexis Wichowski is a public servant, teacher, and writer. She serves as an adjunct associate professor in Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, teaching in the Technology, Media, and Communications (TMaC) specialization. She is also Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Innovation for the City of New York. She previously served New York City as an Associate Commissioner at the newly established Department of Veterans’ Services and a Disaster Relief Field Responder before and during 9/11.

Other government work includes Program Officer for the US Department of State’s Office of eDiplomacy, Diplomatic Innovation Division under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Director of Media Analysis Strategy at the Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations. Awards include the Presidential Management Fellowship, two Meritorious Honor Awards, a Distinguished Dissertation Award, a student-nominated teaching award, and a Fulbright. Outside government, Wichowski has worked in media impact research, information architecture development, academic book indexing, web coding, theater production, foreign sitcoms, and pretzel vending.

Wichowski regularly conducts research and writes about the impact of media, technology and government, with recent publications such as, “Net States Rule the World,” in WIRED, “Hack the Bureaucracy: a User’s Guide to Getting Things Done in Government,” in GovExec, “Social Diplomacy, or How Diplomats Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tweet," in Foreign Affairs, "What Government Can and Should Learn from Hacker Culture," in The Atlantic, "So long, smoke & mirrors! Digital diplomats wear no clothes," in the London School of Economics Review of Books, and a chapter in Digital Diplomacy: Theory & Practice, entitled “ ‘Secrecy is for losers’: why diplomats should embrace openness to protect national security.” Wichowski’s book, The Information Trade: How Big Tech Conquers Countries, Challenges Our Rights, and Transforms Our World (HarperCollins) will be published in February 2020.

Daniel Naujoks

Interim Director of IO/UNS Specialization

Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs

Daniel Naujoks is the director a.i. for the International Organization & UN Studies Specialization at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He has previously taught at The New School’s Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs and Jawaharlal Nehru University. His research focuses on global governance, the effects of migration, refugees, and citizenship on social, economic, and political development, including his book ‘Migration, Citizenship, and Development. Diasporic Membership Policies and Overseas Indians in the United States’ (2013, Oxford University Press). His recent research sheds light on the integration of migration and displacement into public policies and the links to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and interagency cooperation between UN agencies.

Dr. Naujoks regularly advises governments and international organizations - including UNDP, IOM, World Bank, ILO, UN-DESA, OECD, UN Women, UNESCWA, and UNICEF - on issues of migration, diaspora engagement, human rights, displacement, and development. He serves as chair of the International Studies Association’s Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Studies section. Daniel holds a PhD in political science and political economy from the University of Münster and a law degree from Humboldt University in Berlin.