Newsroom

News and Analysis

Tag

Edward Gnehm

Graduates from the Elliott School of International Affairs will hear from a Middle East policy professor and leading diplomat at their May 18 commencement ceremony, the school announced this week.

Edward Gnehm, a former ambassador to Jordan, Kuwait and Australia, will speak the Elliott School of International Affairs' commencement ceremony. Photo courtesy of the Elliott School of International Affairs

Edward “Skip” Gnehm, Jr. who earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from GW in the 1960s, last served as the U.S. Ambassador to Jordan in 2004.

Gnehm, 67, joined the Elliott School faculty in 2004, and was tapped as a chaired professor in 2005 after a $3.3-million gift from the Kuwait Foundation. He has also served on the University’s Board of Trustees and is the director for the Middle East Policy Forum, an event series that brings scholars, journalists and policy makers to campus.

“Ambassador Gnehm is a highly regarded member of our faculty, specifically among our students,” Elliott School spokesman Nick Massella said.

He has also served as an ambassador to Kuwait and Australia, and last worked as an administrator at the State Department in 2000.

Gnehm was not immediately available to comment.

Last year, Lori Beth Garver, a deputy administrator of NASA, spoke at the commencement ceremony.

  • Permalink
  • Comments (1)

Update: Elliott Schools spokesman Menachem Wecker says the money will be used to support teaching, faculty and student research, conferences, and visiting scholars.

The Institute for Middle East Studies in the Elliott School received a $1 million gift from the government of Kuwait, the University announced yesterday.

It is not known if the Institute has decided how the donation will be spent.

This is not the first gift Kuwait has given GW. In 2006, the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences gave $3.4 million to establish the Kuwait professorship now held by Edward Gnehm, the former U.S. ambassador to Kuwait.

In September, Kuwait Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was awarded the President’s Medal by University President Steven Knapp in a ceremony at the Elliott School.

Knapp thanked Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, for his support of GW and the Institute.

“His Highness’s generosity will help us continue to build one of this nation’s premier centers for the study of this important region,” Knapp said in a news release.

  • Permalink
  • Comments