Public Purpose Symposium – Keynote Address

Join the Hart Leadership Program for the second annual Public Purpose Symposium as we celebrate and explore community-engaged research and leadership in conversation with Hart Leadership Program students.

The Symposium will conclude with a special keynote address by Maria Balinska, a respected international journalist and the former Executive Director of the US-UK Fulbright Commission. Balinska will speak about her career journey and leadership development through the lens of “public purpose.”

With experience in international education exchange, journalism and non-profit leadership, Maria Balinska is working to support people and initiatives that further international collaboration and civic dialogue. Maria spent the first two decades of her career at BBC News in London where she worked for ten years, until 2009, as Editor World Current Affairs Radio. After a Nieman fellowship at Harvard, she founded Latitude News, a “local-global mashup” experiment in reporting America’s links with the rest of the world. In 2014, Maria joined the launch team of The Conversation US, an independent news and commentary website authored by academics and edited by journalists for the general public and for four years was its editor-in-chief, based in Boston. In 2019, she took on the role of executive director of the US-UK Fulbright Commission in London where she served for six years, significantly advancing the key strategic goal of making international exchange opportunities affordable and attractive to talented individuals, whatever their background or financial circumstance. In January 2026 she joined the University of Oxford’s Centre for Democratic Resilience as a practitioner associate and July this year she became a fellow at Finnish university LUT’s System Earth Collegium. As the author of The Bagel: the surprising history of a modest bread (Yale 2008), Maria is also a firm believer of the view that a foodstuff can change your perspective on history.

Visit our website to learn more the Public Purpose Symposium: https://hart.sanford.duke.edu/public-purpose-symposium-26/

Open to students, faculty, staff, and the public!