Danica R. Starks is the Senior U.S. Commercial Liaison and Advisor to the U.S. Executive Director at the World Bank and Head of the Commerce Department’s Multilateral Development Bank Group. Physically embedded at the World Bank in Washington, DC, Danica represents the interests of the U.S. Department of Commerce to the World Bank Group and serves as a liaison between the Bank and U.S. business community. In this role, Danica also oversees the Department of Commerce’s Liaison Offices at the other multilateral banks, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (London, UK), Asian Development Bank (Manila, Philippines), African Development Bank (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) and Inter-American Development Bank (Washington, DC).

Danica has over twenty years of experience in international economic policy, commercial diplomacy, trade, and national security, with a specialization in Europe and Eurasia. Most recently Danica served as the Director of the Policy Team at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Office of Russia, Ukraine & Eurasia. She has also previously done assignments as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Helsinki Commission and to the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets.

Danica is a Presidential Management Fellow alumna and holds a Master’s of Science at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, one of two Joint U. S. Military War Colleges, at the National Defense University, where she pursued a concentration in European Studies and was named top student in the Space Industry Study. Danica also holds an M.A. in International Affairs with concentrations in Development and Transition Economics and Russian, Eurasian and Eastern European Studies from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in International Studies and Economics with a minor in Russian and Eastern European Affairs from The American University. Danica speaks Russian and Spanish and has studied Czech, Italian, Serbo-Croatian and Norwegian.

Danica is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (and currently heads the Refugee Assistance in America Program for her local chapter) as well as Chief. She has a passion for mentoring which she does through several organizations, including her own Monthly Mentoring Mondays program, is the Prince George’s County Lead for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the Co-Founder of the ITA Ambassadors Program, a diversity recruitment initiative and serves on the board of E.M.I.C.- Engaging Minorities in International Cultures.