Diane DeMell Jacobsen, M.A., Ph.D.

Diane DeMell Jacobsen, Ph.D. is a successful business executive, International Affairs Scholar and community leader. After graduating with a B.A. in Mathematics in 1965, she joined IBM, progressing through a succession of senior executive management positions, including
mid-Atlantic regional manager, covering seven states and $1 billion in revenue.

Dr. Jacobsen moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 1986, becoming first a health care executive and then president and chief executive officer of an insurance company. A family move to St. Louis allowed her to turn her energies to foreign policy and Washington University in St. Louis .  Earning two master’s degrees and a doctorate in international affairs, she sponsored conflict resolution/peace negotiations in Northern Ireland and Cyprus and was also the driving force in creating the undergraduate International Leadership Program in Arts & Sciences at the university.

A member of the Advisory Group of the Council on Foreign Relations, a trustee of the Saint Louis Art Museum, 2003 recipient of the Allison Atlas Award recognizing her extraordinary efforts on behalf of the National Marrow Donor Program, and the 2005 Distinguished Alumna for Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Jacobsen also lends her experience, expertise, and commitment to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Florida and serves on the board of the World Affairs Council.

Her advocacy for the National Marrow Donor Program in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate resulted in the unanimous passing of the national umbilical cord blood program, which was signed by the President on December 20, 2005, and will save the lives of over 12,000 children per year who are afflicted with blood related disorders.

A specialist in Foreign Policy and Peace Negotiations, in 2007 she was selected by Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates, to review defense strategy at the Pentagon and then traveled with the military to the Middle East and Horn of Africa to meet with commanders and troops fighting the War on Terror.