Diplomat, executive, and journalist, David Ensor brought all these skills to Voice of America when he was appointed as its 28th director. At VOA he worked with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to co-found the Russian-language television program Current Time (which grew into a network), and developed a partnership with the BBC to fight Ebola in Africa, pooling resources, data, and content to provide information more effectively and efficiently.
Under his leadership, VOA launched new television programs in at least 12 languages, and instituted a “digital first” approach to news production. Reflecting these platform initiatives, Ensor told The Washington Post in 2015 that in setting VOA’s overall policy “…one of the biggest efforts is moving our programming to the multiple platforms people use.” During his time with VOA, audience increased nearly 40 percent. Ensor also directed a 70th anniversary celebration for the organization and changed the VOA logo colors back to red, blue, and grey.
Prior to joining VOA, Ensor worked as the director of communications and public diplomacy at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Previously, he was a journalist for thirty years, reporting for NPR, ABC, and CNN. Ensor covered the White House, foreign policy, and defense issues for National Public Radio from 1975 to 1980. He was a television correspondent for ABC News from 1980 to 1998 and served as CNN’s national security correspondent from 1998 to 2006. While at CNN Ensor also reported from battle lines in Chechnya, Bosnia, El Salvador, and Afghanistan, where he traveled by Soviet tank from Jalalabad to Kabul as the Russians began their withdrawal from that war-torn country.
After leaving Voice of America, Ensor became a member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations and was a Shorenstein Resident Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. In 2017 he was named Director of the Project for Media and National Security at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.