Timothy Wirth, the former U.S. Senator and Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs who now heads the United Nations Foundation» delivered a foreign policy address at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism on Tuesday, March 22, 2005.

Wirth was the keynote speaker at the Walter H. Annenberg Symposium, an annual event presented by the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California. Previous speakers have included Gerald Levin, John Warnock, Vartan Gregorian, and John Seely Brown.

Wirth's address covered U.S. foreign policy and efforts in public diplomacy, including the recent announcement that President Bush has nominated longtime adviser Karen Hughes to become the nation's new Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy.

Wirth began his political career as a White House Fellow under President Lyndon Johnson and was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Education in the Nixon Administration. In 1975, Wirth returned to his home state of Colorado and successfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1987, Wirth was elected to the U.S. Senate where he focused on environmental issues, especially global climate change and population stabilization. He served in the U.S. Department of State as the first Undersecretary for Global Affairs from 1993 to 1997. In this position he coordinated U.S. foreign policy in the areas of refugees, population, environment, science, human rights and narcotics.

President of the UN Foundation since its inception in 1998, Wirth organized and led the formulation of the Foundation's mission and program priorities, which include the environment, women and population, children's health and peace, security and human rights. The Foundation also engages in extensive public advocacy, resource mobilization, and institutional strengthening efforts on behalf of the UN.
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