Names: Nossel to head Amnesty International USA
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) has named State Department official Suzanne Nossel as its new executive director. Nossel, who most recently served at the State Department as deputy assistant secretary for international organizations, will assume her new role at AIUSA in January. In the meantime, she is working as a visiting senior fellow at the Council ...
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) has named State Department official Suzanne Nossel as its new executive director.
Nossel, who most recently served at the State Department as deputy assistant secretary for international organizations, will assume her new role at AIUSA in January. In the meantime, she is working as a visiting senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. A long time human rights lawyer and activist, Nossel’s portfolio at State included multilateral human rights, humanitarian affairs, women’s issues, and public diplomacy. She worked on U.N. resolutions related to Iran, Syria, and Libya, and played a leading role in U.S. engagement at the U.N. Human Rights Council.
She had previously served as Human Rights Watch’s chief operating officer, deputy to the ambassador for U.N. management and reform at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, vice president at Bertelsmann Media Worldwide, and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and has also been a fellow and scholar at the Century Foundation, the Center for American Progress, and CFR.
"I am so pleased to join Amnesty International USA at this moment of challenge and opportunity," said Nossel in a Thursday press release. "The drive for political freedom in the Mideast and the demands for greater economic equality here at home are just two examples of the centrality of human rights to some of the most important issues on the global agenda today."
"She is a change agent, as well as a respected author and experienced fundraiser; she will, therefore, bring significant attention to AI’s vital human rights agenda," AIUSA board of directors chair Carole Nagengast said in the release. "As the organization seeks to heighten its impact on numerous front-burner human rights issues globally, Suzanne is undoubtedly the right leader for AIUSA."
In a goodbye e-mail to colleagues in October, Nossel said, "We’ve gotten some concrete, important things done and I feel both pride and confidence that there will be more progress to come on the issues and causes we all care about…. The smudged and illegible keys on my blackberry are testament to the balancing act that everyone tolerated and helped make work. I will miss all of you very much."
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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