Dr. Lerman is deputy director of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS). He was deputy director for foreign policy and international affairs at the National Security Council in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office. He held senior posts in IDF Military Intelligence for over 20 years. He also served for eight years as director of the Israel and Middle East office of the American Jewish Committee. He teaches in the Middle East studies program at Shalem College in Jerusalem, and in post-graduate programs at Tel Aviv University and the National Defense College. He is an expert on Israel’s foreign relations, and on the Middle East. A third-generation Sabra, he holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, and a mid-career MPA from Harvard University.

Prof. Eytan Gilboa is an expert on US Israel relations, international communication, and public diplomacy. He was the founding Head of both the School of Communication and the Center for International Communication at Bar-Ilan University. He has been a senior fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. He also was a senior research associate at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies. He received his MA and PhD degrees from Harvard University and has been a visiting professor in several top American and European universities including Harvard, Tufts, UCLA, USC, Georgetown, the University of Hamburg, the Vienna School of International Studies, and the University of Pennsylvania. He published many books and numerous articles and book chapters and won several international awards. He served as Chair of the Israel Communication Association and frequently contributes op-ed articles to newspapers and news websites and serves as a popular commentator for television and radio networks. He was an adviser to several foreign governments, and in Israel, to the Prime Minister Office, the Ministries of Defense and Foreign affairs, the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs and Defense, and the Government Press Office. He also served as Director of International Studies at the National Defense College, Chair of the Foreign Service Selection Committee; Member of the Committee on Higher Education of the City of Jerusalem; and Chair of the Political Science and International Relations Committee and the Communication Committee at the National Science Foundation.