David J.Y. Combs earned his Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. He joins Asbury University after a career serving in both national security and international affairs. Most recently, he served at the U.S. Department of State, where he led a multidisciplinary research team responsible for designing and evaluating research to inform U.S. public diplomacy and strategic communications around the world. Throughout his government career, he directed multimillion-dollar research portfolios and provided evidence-based insights to senior policymakers, ambassadors, and interagency partners on topics including international public opinion, strategic communications, countering foreign disinformation, and program evaluation. Prior to his time at the Department of State, Dr. Combs served as a U.S. Naval officer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where he authored a field manual on integrating the social and behavioral sciences into counterinsurgency operations.  Outside of his government service, he and his wife, Lyla (M.A. in International Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution), co-founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that combined insights from the social and behavioral sciences with educational best practices to provide intensive English-language instruction and community integration support for refugees. They later presented the organization’s work to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. He and Lyla have been married for 23 years and are the proud parents of their son, Benjamin.