Ralp Nurnberger
Ralph Nurnberger has over 40 years’ experience working in and with the U.S. government, and at one of the most prestigious Washington “think tanks”. In addition, he has taught graduate courses and published widely on matters related to governance and political issues. He served in the legislative branch as Foreign Policy Assistant for then-Kansas Senator James B. Pearson (R-KS) and as a professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.<
In the executive branch, he served as Assistant to the Administrator at the General Services Administration (GSA) and as Director of Congressional Relations at the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Export Administration (BXA).
Ralph Nurnberger was the first director of “Builders for Peace”, an organization established in 1993, with the encouragement of then-Vice President Al Gore, to support the Middle East Peace process through economic and social development. In this capacity, he dealt with international leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, as well as American and international business and political leaders.
For over eight years he was he the Senior Legislative Liaison for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which was then considered to be the most influential foreign policy lobbying organization in Washington. In this capacity he had direct contact with dozens of Senators, Members of Congress, Executive branch officials and Congressional staff on issues related to the Middle East.
He was the first Washington director of an Oregon-based government relations firm (Conklin, Fiscum, McCormack). His clients included high tech firms (Tektronix, Mentor Graphics), health care organizations (Sisters of Providence) and local governments and counties.
Ralph Nurnberger was the Executive Director of the Indian American Center for Political Awareness (IACPA) which promoted Indian American political activism, including placing dozens of university students as interns in Congressional offices.
He founded a new government relations firm, Nurnberger & Associates, Inc., in 1994. He remains the Senior Partner in this firm, which has served clients independently and through affiliations with law firms (Preston Gates; Nelson Mullins) and GrayGlobalAdvisors, Inc., (GGA) a government relations firm founded by former House Majority Whip William H. Gray. For over a dozen years he worked with GGA to represent the Moroccan American Center, and most recently the Embassy of the Dominican Republic. He has worked with Nelson Mullins on behalf of the Embassies of Qatar and Bangladesh.
He spent two years as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he was director of their Congressional relations program as well as writing and editing books and articles on a wide range of topics including international relations and domestic political issues.
Ralph Nurnberger taught as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University for 38 years, where he received the “Excellence in Teaching” award from the Graduate School of Liberal Studies in 2003; and another award for over two decades of outstanding teaching. He has been an adjunct lecturer at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca and Jupiter for over a dozen years.
He has spoken frequently at the Smithsonian Institution covering a wide range of political and historical topics. In addition, he has spoken nationally and internationally, including in Germany, Poland, Britain and Canada, as well as on over a dozen cruises and international journeys.
Education
Ph.D., Georgetown University, 1975
M.A., Columbia University, 1968
B.A., Queens College, 1967 (Phi Beta Kappa; Captain, Varsity Tennis Team)