Karen Hanrahan is the former president and CEO of the Glide Foundation, a social justice organization based in San Francisco, California. From 2009 to 2015, she served as a Barack Obama appointee in the State Department, where she was the US Coordinator for International Assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan and later the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. She was appointed CEO of the Glide Foundation in 2017. [1]
Hanrahan is a native of Indianapolis and received her Political Science and Journalism degree at Indiana University in 1992. [1] Hanrahan holds several advanced degrees. She received a Master of Arts in International Politics with a concentration in peace and conflict resolution from American University. She graduated in 2000 from the University of Washington School of Law with honors and at the top 5 percent of her class. While pursuing her law degree, Hanrahan served as the Law Review editor. She is also a graduate of Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program. [2]
Hanrahan has served as a senior leader in international human rights and capacity building organizations such as the United States Agency for International Development in Iraq, Amnesty International, Search for Common Ground, and the United Nations. [2] She spent years in war zones and unstable countries that included Afghanistan, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. [3] [2]
From 2009 to 2015, Hanrahan served as a White House appointee under President Barack Obama, serving in the State Department as the US Coordinator for International Assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan and most recently as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. While serving in the State Department, Hanrahan was selected to design and lead the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (the QDDR) by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. [4]
In 2017, Hanrahan was appointed president and chief executive officer of GLIDE. [3] In 2018, the San Francisco Business Times named her one of the "Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business." [5]
Hanrahan is married to Dean Wagner. They have two children. [4]
Condoleezza Rice is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th United States secretary of state from 2005 to 2009 and as the 19th U.S. national security advisor from 2001 to 2005. Rice was the first female African-American secretary of state and the first woman to serve as national security advisor. Until the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008, Rice and her predecessor, Colin Powell, were the highest-ranking African Americans in the history of the federal executive branch. At the time of her appointment as Secretary of State, Rice was the highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States to be in the presidential line of succession.
Ethel Kennedy is an American human rights advocate. She is the widow of U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy, and the sixth child of George and Ann (Brannack) Skakel. Shortly after her husband's assassination in 1968, Kennedy founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, a non-profit charity working to reach his goal of a just and peaceful world. In 2014, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. She is the oldest living member of the Kennedy Family.
Medea Benjamin is an American political activist who was the co-founder of Code Pink with Jodie Evans and others. Along with activist and author Kevin Danaher, she created the fair trade advocacy group Global Exchange. Benjamin was the Green Party candidate in California in 2000 for the United States Senate.
Melanne Verveer is the executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security at Georgetown University. She is a founding partner of Seneca Point Global, a worldwide women's strategy firm, and a co-founder of Seneca Women. Melanne Verveer co-authored the book Fast Forward: How Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose with Kim Azzarelli.
Samantha Jane Power is an American journalist, diplomat, and government official who is currently serving as the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. She previously served as the 28th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017. Power is a member of the Democratic Party.
Sima Samar is a Hazara woman and human rights advocate, activist and medical doctor within national and international forums, who served as Minister of Women's Affairs of Afghanistan from December 2001 to 2003. She is the former Chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and, from 2005 to 2009, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan. In 2012, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "her longstanding and courageous dedication to human rights, especially the rights of women, in one of the most complex and dangerous regions in the world."
The term Obama Doctrine is frequently used to describe the principles of US foreign policy under the Obama administration (2009–2017). He relied chiefly on his two highly experienced Secretaries of State—Hillary Clinton (2009–2013) and John Kerry (2013–2017)—and Vice President Joe Biden. Main themes include a reliance on negotiation and collaboration rather than confrontation or unilateralism.
Rosa Gumataotao Rios is an American academic. She served as the 43rd Treasurer of the United States and is a visiting scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
Jeffrey Laurence Bleich is an American lawyer and diplomat from California.
Maria Contreras-Sweet is an American businesswoman and former government official who served as the 24th Administrator of the Small Business Administration from 2014 to 2017. She was the executive chairwoman and founder of ProAmérica Bank, a commercial bank focusing on small to mid-sized businesses with a specialty in the Latino community. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Contreras-Sweet immigrated to Los Angeles, California and has since been involved in both the private sector founding a private equity firm and in public service as the California Secretary of Business, Transportation, and Housing under Governor Gray Davis.
Derek James Mitchell is an American diplomat with extensive experience in Asia policy. He was appointed by President Barack Obama as the first special representative and policy coordinator for Burma with rank of ambassador, and was sworn in by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on October 2, 2011. On June 29, 2012, the U.S. Senate confirmed him as the new United States Ambassador to Burma. On September 4, 2018, Mitchell succeeded Kenneth Wollack as president of the National Democratic Institute, a position he served until September 2023.
Eleni Kounalakis is an American politician, businesswoman, and former diplomat who, since 2019, has served as the 50th lieutenant governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman elected to the office.
Karen Bollinger DeSalvo is an American business executive, physician and public health expert. She has been Google’s chief health officer since 2019. Previously, she served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Health, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and Director of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).
Sima Wali was one of the foremost Afghan human rights advocates in the world, serving as an international campaigner for the liberties and empowerment of refugee and internally displaced populations. She was the Chief Executive Officer of Refugee Women in Development (RefWID), Inc., a global non-profit organization that advocated for the civil rights of refugee women and girls fleeing from conflict and for their equitable reintegration into their societies. She was also the vice president of the Sisterhood Is Global Institute, the world’s first feminist think tank.
Cecilia Chung is a civil rights leader and activist for LGBT rights, HIV/AIDS awareness, health advocacy, and social justice. She is a trans woman, and her life story was one of four main storylines in the 2017 ABC miniseries When We Rise about LGBT rights in the 1970s and 1980s.
Shefali Razdan Duggal is an Indian-American political activist and diplomat serving as the United States ambassador to the Netherlands. She was previously appointed by President Barack Obama to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which supervises the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, for a term which expired in January 2018.
Ieva Ilvesa is a Latvian diplomat, politician and cyber security policy expert, and former First Lady of Estonia. Ilvesa ran as a Latvian candidate for the 2019 European Parliament election. She was the third place candidate for Development/For!, second on the list was Baiba Rubesa, the former CEO of Rail Baltica.
Lisa J. Peterson is an American diplomat and the former United States Ambassador to Eswatini. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on September 16, 2015, and confirmed by the Senate on Nov. 19, 2015. She left her post on December 1, 2020. Between January 20 and July 14, 2021, she served in the Biden administration as the Acting Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights in 2021.
Rebecca A. Hare Cokley is an American disability rights activist and public speaker who is currently the first U.S. Disability Rights Program Officer for the Ford Foundation. Prior to joining Ford, Cokley was the founding director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress. During the Obama administration, Cokley served as the executive director of the National Council on Disability.
Donna T. McLeod is a Jamaican-born American politician from Georgia. McLeod is a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives from the 105th District from 2019 to 2023. She is the first Jamaican-American to become a Representative in Georgia. She defeated Republican Donna Sheldon in the 2018 election to replace retiring Representative Joyce Chandler.