A television and radio journalist for over 30 years, David Burnham Ensor is a communications executive with experience in government, business and the non-profit sector.
Ensor was the founding Director of the George Washington University Project for Media and National Security, a non-profit group bringing reporters, military leaders and national security leaders together for face-to-face conversations, in support of fact-based journalism. The Project includes the Defense Writers Group, a forty-year Washington, D.C. institution.
He was an Executive Vice President of the Atlantic Council, a Washington, D.C. think tank on international issues 2016–2017. In the Fall Term of 2015, he was a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center, at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
Ensor served as the 28th director of the Voice of America 2011–2015. During his four years leading VOA, its audience increased almost 40 percent. He co-founded a daily Russian language television show "Current Time" responding to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Crimea, developed a partnership with the BBC fighting Ebola in Africa; and helped defend VOA against political attempts to weaken its journalistic independence. He helped VOA reach over 187 million globally per week in 45 languages, on television, radio, internet, social media.
In 2010–2011, he served as Director for Communications and Public Diplomacy of the U.S. Embassy in
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. He led American efforts to help Afghans build a modern mobile telephone, social media, radio and television infrastructure, and a broad range of press and cultural activities designed to help Afghanistan recover from 30 years of war. He was one of the highest ranking representatives of President Obama's 'civilian surge' to serve in Afghanistan.
From 2006 to 2009, Ensor was the spokesman and Executive Vice President for Communications at Mercuria Energy Group.
[New PKN Orlen--Mercuria term contract](_blank)
, David Ensor, Vice President for Communications, Mercuria Energy Group, Dec 1 2009. Accessed Apr 23 2010 Prior to joining Mercuria Energy Group he worked for 31 years as a journalist for
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
,
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, and
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
.
[Polonia Global Fund](_blank)
"About David Ensor", Person of the Month, August 2004
Education
Ensor earned a bachelor's degree with honors in European history from the University of California, Berkeley.
He graduated from Phillips Academy Andover in 1969.
Career as a journalist
From 1975 to 1980, Ensor was a reporter in Washington, D.C. for National Public Radio. He joined ABC News as White House correspondent in 1980, reporting on the presidency of Jimmy Carter. During his career at ABC News Ensor also served as a diplomatic correspondent for ABC News based at the U.S. State Department, and reported from Warsaw, Rome and Moscow. In August 1999, Ensor joined CNN, where he worked as national security correspondent based in Washington, D.C, reporting on the U.S. intelligence community and on national security issues such as international terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the national missile defense debate. For his 2004 CNN documentary "Warsaw Rising" on the 1944 Polish uprising against the Nazis, he received an Emmy nomination, a National Headliner Award and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit, from the President of Poland.
He left CNN in 2006.
Organizations
Ensor is a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
.
Personal life
Ensor is the son of Mideast oil expert Andrew F. Ensor and grandson of the historian Sir
Robert Ensor
Sir Robert Charles Kirkwood Ensor (16 October 1877 – 4 December 1958) was a British writer, poet, journalist, liberal intellectual and historian. He is best known for ''England: 1870-1914'' (1936), a volume in the '' Oxford History of England' ...
, one of the founders of the
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...
and of the
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The Labour Party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. In all gen ...
.
Publications
* "In Volatile Europe Danger and Opportunity Abound", with Fred Kempe, Handelsblatt.com, June 2, 2016
* "How Washington Can Win the Information War", Foreign Policy, December 14, 2015
* "No, Governor Kasich, Voice of America's Not About 'Judeo-Christian Values', Politico, November 2015
* "Exporting the First Amendment" Shorenstein Center paper, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, December 14, 2015
* "Poland Is Moving to Shut Off Independent News. What Will Biden Do?", Politico, August 26, 2021
References
External links
MercuriaVOAAtlantic CouncilShorenstein CenterProject for Media & National Security
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ensor, David
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American reporters and correspondents
American television journalists
UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
American male journalists
Voice of America people
George Washington University alumni