Dylan Davis is currently Associate Director at the UC Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS) and senior advisor to The Asia Foundation. He was the Korea Country Representative for The Asia Foundation from 2015-18. Davis has extensive professional and academic experience focused on Korea and its development, and has worked in-country with government and academic institutions. With over a decade of experience, Davis has been honored with numerous awards from institutions such as the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, The Asia Foundation, and the University of California, Berkeley.

From 2011-2015, Davis served as program director for the Center for Korean Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on strengthening research and programs on Korea at UC Berkeley, expanding its Korean Studies teaching curriculum and visiting scholar program, and promoting knowledge about Korea on campus and in the region. In his current role at IEAS, he is responsible for managing the daily operations, fundraising activities, and academic programs of six area studies centers (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Buddhist Studies, and Silk Road Studies), an active publications unit, and other programs. His research interests focus on how foreign governments and private entities engage with the Korean media and public.

Earlier in his career, Davis served in the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. In this role, he supported the embassy’s engagement with Korean and American media organizations as well as participated in a number of official visits by high-level delegations, including those that attended the G20 Seoul Summit in 2011. In Seoul, Davis also worked as an International Affairs officer at the Yonsei University Health System (Severance Hospital), and served as a Fulbright grantee to the Korean-American Educational Commission. In 2013, he was selected by the Mansfield Foundation as one of ten Korea specialists to join the first cohort of Korea Foundation-Mansfield Foundation Korea Nexus Scholars.

On this trip Dylan will connect the group with speakers in the region who have ties to UC Berkeley.