Marie Ciliberti will be most remembered for her longtime broadcasting career at the Voice of America (VOA) Russian Branch, especially her production of Willis Conover jazz programs to the Soviet Union. Willis Conover attracted millions of loyal shortwave radio listeners with his jazz broadcasts which were one of the best instruments of American soft power public diplomacy in the USSR.
Marie was also a confidential advisor to several VOA USSR Division managers and played an active role in the VOA employee union for many years even in her retirement. She and I continued to communicate regularly after we both retired from U.S. government service and focused our pro bono activities on protecting VOA programs from cuts by BBG Board members, some of whom had business interests in Russia and China.
Preferring to stay out of the limelight, Marie wrote from time to time commentaries for the independent BBG Watch website under her pen name "Quo Vadis" and offered her advice to other contributors on defending agency employees from the effects of unjust retaliation and mismanagement.
