Guide to Specialists

Heather Sensibaugh
Special Assistant to the President, Executive Office

Phone: (202) 429-4171

E-mail: hsensibaugh@usip.org

Languages: German

Heather Sensibaugh is the special assistant to the president in the Executive Office at USIP. She joined the team for the Public Education Center to coordinate an advisory group process to develop content for the exhibits. She also coordinated the groundbreaking ceremony for the new headquarters on June 5, 2008. Together with Ambassador Richard H. Solomon and Nigel Quinney, she is working on a book about “American Negotiating Behavior,” which is part of the cross-cultural negotiation series published by USIP. Heather was previously a Program Assistant with the Task Force on the United Nations and in the Professional Training Program (now known as the Education and Training Center/International).

Prior to joining the Institute, she assisted community members as they worked to improve access to justice for rural Sierra Leoneans with a local non-government organization called “Timap for Justice.” She was also a research assistant to the director of policy with the Open Society Institute. Her work at OSI dealt with development assistance, freedom of information legislation and truth commission efforts around the world.

Sensibaugh received her Master of Arts in public international law and development from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She received the West Law Prize in 2007 for excellence in the field of international law at Fletcher. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Clark University, which recognized her as the Distinguished Young Alumna in 2007 for her commitment to service. She is fluent in German and has limited knowledge of French, Spanish and Krio. She is a member of Women in International Security.

Publications:

• “Constraints on the President’s Power to Interpret Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions,” Chicago-Kent Journal of International & Comparative Law, (Vol. 8, 2008).
• “Why Achieving Reconciliation in Iraq is Possible: Suggestions for Mechanisms and Processes,” co-author, Praxis (Vol. 23, 2008).