duckenfieldDavid Duckenfield, a Latin American PR specialist and president of Miami-based Balsera Communications, has been named deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the U.S. State Department.

Duckenfield, who will head State's US Diplomacy Center and lead its public liaison and domestic outreach efforts, takes up the post on May 5.

The fluent Spanish speaker was a member of President Obama's Florida finance committee during the 2008 campaign and helped produce Spanish-language ads. He was also on the 2012 re-election finance team.

He joined Balsera in 2007 to create a federal government practice and became a partner a year later. He was director of US Hispanic PR for Yahoo! and senior manager for communications for NBA Latin America. He was also a Foreign Service officer with the US Information Agency stationed in Mexico City and Bogota.

Veteran journalist Doug Frantz is assistant secretary for public affairs at the State Dept.