Johnny Walsh is Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for the Middle East. He served most recently as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, before that at the National Security Council coordinating the 2023 Summit for Democracy, and at USAID from 2021 to 2023 as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance.
From 2017 to 2021, Mr. Walsh was a Senior Expert at the United States Institute of Peace. His prior government service included 2.5 years as a Senior Policy Advisor on the Middle East and South Asia at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, two stints as the State Department's lead advisor on the Afghanistan peace process, and tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Walsh holds a master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies and a bachelor’s in International History, both from Harvard University. He is also an accomplished musician who co-composed an opera entitled Tear a Root from the Earth, which uses Afghan and American folk music to chronicle the two countries’ recent history together.