Ambassador Donald Steinberg serves as expert advisor to the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he focuses on expanding locally-led development, re-aligning U.S. policies with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. He also serves as executive director of the non-profit Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace, and Security, which works to expand the leadership and participation of women in global security issues and peace processes.
In four decades of public service, he was deputy administrator at the USAID under the Obama administration, ambassador to Angola, director of the Department of State’s Joint Policy Council, White House deputy press secretary, NSC senior director for Africa, special Haiti coordinator, senior fellow at U.S. Institute of Peace, and the President’s special representative for Demining.
In the civil society arena, he was a senior fellow at the NGO umbrella organization, InterAction, supporting its members in expanding the diversity, equity and inclusion of their 180 members. He also served on the Inter-Action board for four years. He served as president and CEO of World Learning, deputy president of International Crisis Group, co-chair of the board of the Women’s Refugee Commission, visiting professor at Dartmouth University, senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a member of the UN Secretary General’s Civil Society Advisory Group for Women, Peace and Security.
He has received the Presidential Meritorious Service Award, the Frasure Award for International Peace, the Pulitzer Fellowship, InterAction’s Leet Award for Women’s Empowerment, and career Distinguished Service Awards from both the State Department and USAID. He holds master’s degrees in economics from the University of Toronto and in journalism from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree from Reed College.