Gahl Hodges Burt

Gahl Hodges Burt is chairman emeritus of the American Academy in Berlin, an institute she co-founded in 1997 with the late Richard Holbrooke, bringing American scholars to Germany for residency and research. Ms. Burt started her career in the civil service at the U.S. State Department in 1973, where she served as a personal assistant to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and then assistant chief of protocol until 1983. In 1983, she became White House social secretary to President and Mrs. Reagan and served in that post until 1985 when she moved to Germany where her husband was U.S. Ambassador. Ms. Burt sits on the board of the International Republican Institute, a democracy promotion institution, and the White House Historical Association.