Ms Lungescu is a Distinguished Fellow at RUSI, the world’s oldest defence and security think-tank, and a Senior Adviser at the EPC. She is also the longest-running NATO Spokesperson (2010-2023), and the first woman and first journalist in this post. She directed alliance communications during the most turbulent period in a generation, providing strategic advice to two Secretaries General, Jens Stoltenberg and Anders Fogh Rasmussen. She coordinated NATO’s 24/7 media operations, planning and directing the media aspects of all NATO Summits and ministerial meetings. In 2022, media coverage of NATO reached an estimated 5.5 billion people in over 100 countries. As the official responsible for all public messaging and chief speechwriter for the NATO Secretary General, she played a critical role in NATO’s approach to Russia and China, the accession of Finland and Sweden, and military operations. She also pioneered at NATO the concept of “pre-bunking” disinformation in the run-up to Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. In 2023, Secretary General Stoltenberg awarded Ms Lungescu the NATO Meritorious Service Medal. In 2016, Politico named Ms Lungescu as one of the most influential women in Brussels.

Ms Lungescu joined NATO in 2010 after 25 years at the BBC World Service, where she covered EU and NATO affairs for radio, television and online, starting in the BBC’s Romanian service, then as European Affairs Correspondent in Brussels and Berlin. Travelling widely, she covered the momentous transition to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, the shaping of national identity in the Western Balkans and the former Soviet Union, and the impact of the economic and financial crisis. Her documentary series "State Secrets" – about secret police archives and finding my own Securitate files – received a jury's commendation in the 2010 UACES-Thompson Reuters Reporting Europe awards.

In 2002, Ms Lungescu was the recipient of a European Woman of Achievement Award. In 1998, she travelled to Latin America on an Onassis Bursary to report on the legacy of military dictatorships. She contributed to "Child of Europe: An Anthology of New East European Poetry" (Penguin International Poets, 1991) and to "More From Our Own Correspondent" (Barnes&Noble, 2009). She holds a Master’s Degree in English and Spanish Studies from the University of Bucharest and speak English, French, Romanian, German, Spanish, and some Italian.