In 2009, President Obama nominated Melanne Verveer to be the first ever US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. In that capacity, she worked with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to coordinate foreign policy issues and activities relating to the political, economic and social advancement of women, traveling to some sixty countries. She led efforts to fully integrate women’s participation and rights into US foreign policy and to mobilize concrete support for women’s political and economic empowerment through pubic-private partnerships. President Obama also appointed Verveer to be US Representative to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Today, she is the Director of Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security. The Institute seeks to enhance national and global security by documenting the crucial role women play in peace-building and security through research and scholarship and by engaging global leaders in conversations on the urgent issues of our time. She also serves as Special Representative on Gender Issues for the OSCE Chairmanship.

Ambassador Verveer is a founding partner of Seneca Point Global, the global women strategy firm. SPG partners with leading companies and institutions to design strategies that focus on women and girls to drive sustainable results – whether social, economic or both. She is the co-author of the bestseller, FAST FORWARD: How Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose.

Prior to her role at the State Department, Verveer was Chair and Co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international NGO she co-founded to invest in emerging women leaders. Prior to Vital Voices, she was Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady in the Clinton Administration. She served as the chief assistant to Hillary Clinton in her wide-ranging international activities to advance women’s rights and further social development, democracy and peace-building initiatives. She also led the effort to establish the President’s Interagency Council on Women and was instrumental in the adoption of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Prior to her time in the White House, she held a number of leadership roles in public policy organizations and as congressional staff.

Ambassador Verveer is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. She is on the boards of the Atlantic Council, National Endowment for Democracy and Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, as well as the World Bank Advisory Council on Gender and Development. She was the 2013 Humanitas visiting professor at Cambridge University, and she was selected to deliver the 2017 Tanner Lecture on Human Values at Clare Hall College, Cambridge. In 2008, the President of Ukraine awarded her the Order of Princess Olga. She has a BS and MS from Georgetown and holds several honorary degrees. She has received numerous awards including the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award. She was named to the NEWSWEEK “150 Women Who Shake the World” list; Fast Company’s “60 Influencers Who are Changing the World;” and Enterprising Magazine’s Hall of Fame.

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