M. Diana Helweg Newton is the founder and director emerita of the Tower Scholars Program at SMU for which 10 of the highest-caliber students are selected to enroll in an experiential minor in public policy and international affairs. She is also a Colin Powell Teaching Fellow and a Senior Fellow at the John Goodwin Tower Center for Public Policy and International Affairs at SMU where she teaches in the public policy and international affairs minor. Mrs. Newton has also taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. Before moving to Texas, Mrs. Newton was an International Affairs Fellow at CFR in New York City and a Hitachi International Affairs Fellow at the Japan Center for International Exchange in Tokyo, where she worked as the project director for the Council’s Economic Task Force on Japan. Prior to working at the Council, she served as the Executive Assistant to the Deputy National Security Advisor at the National Security Council, and as the Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs at the State Department. Previously, she practiced law in the Legal Adviser’s Office at State, and she began her legal career at Morrison & Foerster in Washington, DC. She chairs the Hitachi IAF Selection Committee and sits on the National Program Committee at the Council on Foreign Relations. She serves on the boards of trustees at Deerfield Academy, Episcopal School of Dallas, and the International Center for Transitional Justice. She also serves as a commissioner on the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission and the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Exchange. She is a graduate of Yale University and Boston University School of Law.
M. Diana Helweg Newton
