Inaugural Carnegie Distinguished Fellows Highlight IGP’s Global Reach

IGP’s inaugural cohort includes a diverse mix of high-profile practitioners from across a range of sectors, including a former head of state, high-ranking policy officials, diplomats, activists, and other distinguished leaders from across the globe.

STACEY ABRAMS

New York Times Bestselling Author, Entrepreneur, and Political Leader

Stacey Abrams served as minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives and was the first Black woman to be the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in US history.

Abrams has launched multiple nonprofit organizations devoted to democracy protection, voting rights, and effective public policy. She has also cofounded several successful companies, including a financial services firm, an energy and infrastructure consulting firm, and the media company Sage Works Productions.

MICHELLE BACHELET

Former President of Chile; Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Michelle Bachelet served as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights from 2018 to 2022. In that role, she was the principal human-rights official of the United Nations and spearheaded the UN’s human-rights efforts worldwide.

Bachelet was twice elected president of Chile, serving from 2006 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2018. Before becoming the country’s first female president, she had been the first woman to serve Chile—or any Latin American nation—as defense minister, from 2002 to 2004. Bachelet also served as Chile’s health minister from 2000 to 2002. 

She has also served in leadership roles at multiple international organizations: as the first director of UN Women and as chair of the Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health and the ILO’s Social Protection Floor Advisory Group, among others. 

SHABANA BASIJ-RASIKH

Cofounder and President of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA)

Shabana Basij-Rasikh is the cofounder and president of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), the first and only boarding school for Afghan girls, operating in Kabul from 2016 through the summer of 2021 and the Taliban’s return to power. That August, Basij-Rasikh led the evacuation of her school community from Afghanistan to Rwanda, where SOLA has reestablished its operations and its students have resumed their studies. In 2021, she joined the Washington Post’s Global Opinions page as a contributing columnist, and in 2023, she received the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year award from the National Geographic Society.

HON. HENRIETTA FORE

Former Executive Director of UNICEF; Former USAID Administrator

Henrietta H. Fore has worked to champion economic development, education and health, nutrition, and water and energy infrastructure—in both humanitarian and disaster assistance and long-term development—in all countries in the world. She has served in both the public and private sectors,most recently(2018–22) as global executive director of UNICEF, where she led initiatives including the world’s largest procurement and delivery of childhood and COVID vaccines and connecting every school and learner to distance learning and the internet.

Earlier, Fore served as chairman and CEO of Holsman International, a manufacturing and investment company. She also served as the first woman administrator in the US Agency for International Development (USAID); director of the US Office of Foreign Assistance and undersecretary of state for management in the US Department of State; and director of the United States Mint in the US Department of Treasury. 

KIM GHATTAS

Emmy Award–Winning Journalist, Analyst, and Author

Kim Ghattas is an Emmy Award–winning journalist, analyst, and author with more than 20 years of experience in print and broadcast media, covering the Middle East, international affairs, and US foreign policy for the BBC and other media. She is a contributing writer for The Atlantic magazine and a regular contributor to the Financial Times. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Secretary about US foreign policy and Hillary Clinton, and the New York Times notable book of 2020, Black Wave, about the Saudi-Iran rivalry. Ghattas is now writing her third book, revisiting Lebanon’s civil war as the origin story of the US-Iran clash in the Middle East, to be published by Holt.

MICHEL KAZATCHKINE

Former Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria

Professor Michel Kazatchkine has over 35 years of experience in global health as a leading physician, researcher, administrator, advocate, policymaker, and diplomat. He is now a senior adviser to the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization (WHO) and a senior fellow with the Graduate Institute of Geneva.

Kazatchkine has played key roles in various organizations, serving as director of the National Agency for Research on AIDS in France and French ambassador on health. In 2007, Kazatchkine was elected executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, a position in which he served until March 2012. From 2012 to 2020, he served as the UN secretary-general’s special envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He recently served on the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response, established by the WHO to evaluate the global response to COVID-19.

SIR STEPHEN LOVEGROVE

Former UK National Security Adviser; Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Columbia SIPA’s Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP)

Sir Stephen Lovegrove was the UK’s national security adviser until late 2022, during which time he was responsible for the UK’s national response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the drawdown from Afghanistan, as well as overseeing AUKUS. Earlier, he was the permanent secretary for the Ministry of Defence for five years (2016–21), a role he also performed at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (2013–16). He joined the UK’s civil service in 2004 after a career in investment banking. 

DAVID MILIBAND

President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee; Former UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

David Miliband is the president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. He oversees the agency’s operations in 40 crisis-affected countries and its refugee resettlement and assistance programs throughout Europe and the Americas. He previously served as the 74th secretary of state for foreign affairs for the United Kingdom.

FRANK MUGISHA

Prominent Ugandan LGBTI Rights Advocate

Mugisha is a prominent voice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) rights, a respected human rights champion, and an anti-violence advocate. He has founded and led a number of advocacy groups, including Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), the largest and leading organization of the LGBTI movement in Uganda. In 2012, he started the first and only LGBT health center in Uganda. Mugisha’s work has been recognized worldwide, including by former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and with a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.

ROBERT O’BRIEN

Cofounder and Chairman of American Global Strategies LLC; Former US National Security Advisor

Robert C. O’Brien is the cofounder and chairman of American Global Strategies. He was the 27th US national security advisor from 2019 to 2021. O’Brien served as the president’s principal adviser on all aspects of American foreign policy and national security affairs.

Earlier, O’Brien was the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs with the personal rank of ambassador. He was directly involved in the return of over 25 detainees and hostages to the United States. O’Brien previously served as cochairman of the US Department of State

Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan under secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

MARIA RESSA

Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Journalist; Cofounder, CEO, and President of Rappler

Maria Ressa is a Nobel laureate and journalist known for her work to protect media freedom. In October 2021, she was one of two journalists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her "efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace." Ressa is the cofounder of Rappler, a digital news site in the Philippines that exposed corruption, human rights violations, and abuses during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. As Rappler's CEO and president, Ressa endured constant political harassment and arrests by the Duterte government and was forced to post bail ten times to stay free. All told she has worked as a journalist in Asia for more than 37 years. She helped set up and then head CNN’s Manila bureau in 1987 and its Jakarta bureau in 1995.

ERIC SCHMIDT

Cofounder, Schmidt Futures; Former CEO and Chairman, Google

Schmidt is an accomplished technologist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He joined Google in 2001 and helped grow the company from a startup to a global leader in technology technology. Schmidt served as Google’s CEO and chairman from 2001 to 2011. In 2017, he cofounded Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative that brings talented people together in networks to prove out their ideas and solve hard problems in science and society.

JOHN SULLIVAN

Former Deputy Secretary of State; Former US Ambassador to the Russian Federation

John J. Sullivan’s career spans four decades in the public sector and in private law practice. He has served five presidents in prominent diplomatic and legal positions, including as US ambassador to the Russian Federation under presidents Joe Biden (2021–2022) and Donald

Trump (2019–2021), acting secretary of state in 2018, and deputy secretary of state (2017).

Sullivan is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington, DC, and New York offices and a co-lead of the firm's national security practice. He is also a distinguished fellow at the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University. As a leading authority on foreign affairs, he is quoted frequently in national media and is a contributor to CBS News.

MARIE YOVANOVITCH

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine 

Marie Yovanovitch is the author of a bestselling memoir, Lessons from the Edge, a nonresident fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. During her 33-year diplomatic career, she served as the US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Ukraine. She also worked in Russia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Somalia, and in multiple assignments in Washington, DC, including as the principal deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, where she coordinated policy on European and global security issues.