BIOGRAPHY OF LINDA S. DROKER DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF SOUTH ASIA AND OCEANIA Linda Droker was appointed Director of the Office of South Asia and Oceania at the Department of Commerce in May 2002. She manages a team of five professionals who participate in the conduct of U.S. trade policy and help U.S. companies overcome or manage trade barriers in the countries of South Asia (the Indian Subcontinent), and for Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. Among her activities have been re-establishing a bilateral Commercial Dialogue with India and participating in the negotiations for the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement. From July-November 2005, Ms. Droker served as the Acting Director of the Office of Strategic Communication in the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs, the unit responsible for U.S. public diplomacy toward international audiences. She undertook this assignment as part of a two-year candidate development program for the senior management level of the federal service, for which she was selected in 2004. Ms. Droker has been with the Department of Commerce since 1980. She served as the division director for Korea and Taiwan in the Office of the Pacific Basin from 1990-2002. Her previous positions have included division director for Korea and Vietnam, senior desk officer for Taiwan, desk officer for Thailand and Indonesia, and research analyst on trade with non-market economy countries. In 1988, she was awarded a six-month fellowship to serve as a Congressional staff aide in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2004, Ms. Droker headed a team that received the Department’s Silver Medal for Meritorious Federal Service for work on the Free Trade Agreement with Australia. That year, she also received the International Trade Administration’s Under Secretary’s Award for leadership. In 1998, she and a team of colleagues received the Silver Medal for developing a strategic response to the Asian financial crisis. She has traveled extensively in East and South Asia. Ms. Droker received her M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., and her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Los Angeles.
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