Biography
Catherine Russell serves as UNICEF’s 8th Executive Director, overseeing the organization’s work for children in over 190 countries and territories. From 2020 to 2022, Ms. Russell served under President Joe Biden as Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. From 2013 to 2017, she was the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State. Previously, Ms. Russell served as Deputy Assistant to the President in the White House administration of President Barack Obama, Senior Advisor on International Women’s Issues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, and Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Before re-entering government service in 2020, Ms. Russell 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.
