Ms. Bhatnagar is a recently retired Specialist diplomat with nearly a decade of experience strategizing and implementing comprehensive capacity development projects by assessing local community needs and engaging
targeted audiences across 27 countries promoting U.S. foreign policy priorities. As the State Department’s Regional Public Engagement Specialist in South Central Europe, Far East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, she lead cross-functional teams in development of platforms and programs for public engagement at 130 American Spaces (AS), engaging with U.S. policies and values such as democracy, economic development, education, literacy, and youth and women empowerment – in culturally-tailored yet branded environments. As part of her assignment, she also keynoted at several interrnational library conferences and made presentations on applicable library topics.


Prior to joining the U.S. Department of State in 2010, she worked at the New Jersey State Library (NJSL) as Analysis and Trends Specialist in Library Development Bureau. At NJSL, she determined the disbursement of multi- million dollars of government funds as Per Capita State Aid (PCSA) for all public libraries in New Jersey by designing and analyzing prorated service standards assessments. She has also worked in the university, county, and public libraries in the United States for nearly 25 years as business, science, and career specialist librarian.


Ms Bhatnagar considers herself as a forward thinking, user-centric knowledge management professional, passionate about global business, economics and emerging technologies. She also enjoys travelling across the globe experiencing different cultures and cuisines.

Ms. Bhatnagar holds an MLS from the University of Rhode Island, an MS in Cytology and Genetics from the University of Bombay (India) and an MBA from the Datamatics Institute of Management, also in India. She is fluent in English, Hindi and comprehends spoken Urdu, Gujarati, and Punjabi.

She calls metro D.C her home now. Besides United States, she has lived in India, Serbia, Japan, and Kenya.

For additional details: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alkabbhatnagar/