Speakers

Catherine Russell became UNICEF’s 8th Executive Director on February 1, 2022, overseeing the organization’s work for children in over 190 countries and territories. Ms. Russell has decades of experience in public service, with a focus on empowering underserved communities around the world and developing high-impact policies and programmes to support women and girls, including in humanitarian crises. She has previously served under both President Biden and President Obama’s administrations as well as serving as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State. Before re-entering government service in 2020, she taught at the Harvard Kennedy School as an Institute of Politics Fellow.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, magna cum laude, from Boston College and a Juris Doctor degree from the George Washington University Law School.