Josh Manley is a Program Officer in the Meridian Center for Global Leadership (MCGL), where he administers the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). Prior to joining Meridian in 2021, he served as Government Affairs Liaison for the Office of the Howard County Executive. In that position, he advanced the County Executive’s political and policy priorities to benefit Howard County’s 325,690 residents, 20 percent of whom are foreign-born.

Prior to this, Josh served as a Senior Program Associate at the International Republican Institute, where he managed U.S. Government democracy and governance projects in Argentina, Ecuador, and Paraguay on topics such as legislative strengthening, citizen participation, election security, anticorruption, and women’s political empowerment. At the Institute, he coordinated multiple parliamentary exchanges with the Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine National Congress. Earlier in his career, Josh served as a Political Section Intern at the U.S. Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States.

Josh holds a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. During his undergraduate studies, he enrolled as a direct exchange student at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires. He also holds a master’s degree in International Public Policy from University College London.

Josh is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Young Professionals Briefing Series and the Baltimore Council on Foreign Relations.