Maxwell School’s International Relations Program names new chair

Jill Leonhardt
315 443 5492

The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs has announced that it has chosen Ambassador Donald Planty as the next leader of its International Relations Program . Planty, a native of Lowville, N.Y., will assume his new role in August.

Planty served in a variety of posts and in a range of geographic locations during his tenure with the U.S. State Department, including in the embassies in Panama, Chile, Mexico, the Holy See in Rome, Spain and Norway. In his final posting, he served from 1996-99 as U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala. During that time, he helped Guatemala end its 36-year-long armed internal conflict by assisting both the government and the guerrillas to reach agreement on a permanent and lasting peace through a United Nations mediation process. In recognition of his efforts, he received the Order of the Quetzal, Grand Cross, Guatemala’s highest civilian honor. He was also presented with the U.S. Army Civilian Service Award, the highest civilian award bestowed by that service. Since retiring from the U.S. Foreign Service, Planty has maintained a successful consulting business focused on Latin America.

“We are extremely pleased to have attracted a foreign policy practitioner of Ambassador Planty’s experience, competence and dedication,” says Maxwell School Dean Mitchel Wallerstein. “His substantial ‘hands-on’ international experience, as well as his management expertise, prepares him well to lead the Maxwell IR program to an even more prominent role in the field. He also will be an excellent role model and mentor for SU’s IR students, both graduate and undergraduate, as he applies his career experience to educating future leaders for the international sector.”