Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

DOUGLAS AND SARAH ALLISON CENTER FOR FOREIGN POLICY STUDIES

Helle Dale, Director

WASHINGTON, DEC. 14, 2004—Helle Dale has been named director of the new Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, a prominent think tank here.

The Allison Center, founded last month with a $10 million grant from Douglas and Sarah Allison of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., has been created to strengthen Heritage’s already formidable foreign policy research and analysis, Heritage President Ed Feulner said.

A veteran foreign policy analyst, Dale has served as deputy director of Heritage’s Davis Institute for Foreign Policy Studies since 2001. Dale began her career as a journalist, and she has written extensively on U.S. foreign policy, defense and national security since 1991. Prior to joining Heritage, she served as editorial page editor of The Washington Times, where she guided development of the newspaper’s positions on presidential, congressional and local politics as well as foreign affairs. She continues to write a weekly foreign affairs column for the Times and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Her extensive experience in analyzing international relationships, her broad acquaintance with diplomats and elected officials the world over, and her outstanding communications skill make Helle the ideal person to lead the Allison Center in its mission to articulate foreign policy recommendations that promote freedom, opportunity and prosperity for all,” Feulner said.

In addition to being active in numerous business and civic organizations, Douglas and Sarah Allison have an abiding interest in questions of public policy. Long-time supporters of The Heritage Foundation, they have taken a special role in promoting its research and education programs dealing with international relations. Douglas Allison has been a member of Heritage’s board of trustees since 1998 and currently serves as chairman of the board’s budget and audit committee. He recently retired as chairman and CEO of Allison-Fisher International Inc., an automotive marketing research and consultancy firm with offices in Southfield, Mich., Gardena, Calif., and London.