About USIP

The Board of Directors

The United States Institute of Peace Act vests the powers of the corporation in a fifteen-member Board of Directors.  Twelve members of the Board are drawn from outside of federal service and are appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to four-year terms.  They may serve beyond the expiration of their terms until they are replaced.  An individual may be appointed to no more than two terms.

Three members of the Board serve ex-officio.  They are the secretaries of State and Defense or, if they so designate, a Senate-confirmed designee of a least an Assistant Secretary level; and the President of the National Defense University or, if he or she so designates, the Vice President.  No more than eight of the fifteen voting members of the Board may be of the same political party.  The president of the United States Institute of Peace is a nonvoting member of the Board.

Chairman

J. Robinson West (January 2004 – October 2012) is the chairman and founder of PFC Energy.  He has advised chief executives of leading international oil and gas companies and national oil companies on corporate strategy, portfolio management, acquisitions, divestitures, and investor relations.  Before founding PFC in 1984, Robin served in the Reagan Administration as assistant secretary of the Interior for Policy, Budget and Administration (1981-83), with responsibility for U.S. offshore oil policy.  Robin conceived and implemented the five-year Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Leasing Schedule and managed the $14 billion per year OCS policy, the largest non-financial auction in the world at that time.  Between 1977 and 1980, he was a first vice president at Blyth, Eastman, Dillon & Co., Inc., an investment banking firm and was also a member of the firm’s operating committee.  Prior to that, he served in the Ford Administration as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for International Economic Affairs (1976-77) and on the White House staff (1974-76).  In 1976, he received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Civilian Service.  West is a member of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, the National Petroleum Council, and the Council on Foreign Relations.  He is president of the Wyeth Endowment for American Art.  He has served as a trustee of the $3 billion Trans-Alaska Pipeline Liability Fund, as a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Advisory Panel, the Industry Policy Advisory Committee on Multilateral Trade Negotiations of the U.S. Trade Representative, and on the National Advisory Committee on Handicapped Children. West was a presidential representative to the Yemen Arab Republic in 1987 and was appointed by the president to the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere in 1977. West received a B.A. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from Temple University.  West is married to Eileen Shields West, a journalist, and has four children, and resides in Washington, D.C.

Vice Chairman

George E. Moose (September 2007 – September 2011) is a former career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, where he attained the rank of career ambassador.  His service with the U.S. State Department included assignments in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Europe.  He held appointments as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Benin (1983–86) and to the Republic of Senegal (1988-91).  From 1991 to 1992, he served as U.S. alternate representative in the United Nations Security Council.  In 1993, he was appointed assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, a position he occupied until 1997.  From 1998 to 2001, he was U.S. permanent representative to the European Office of the United Nations in Geneva. Moose is adjunct professor of Practice at the Elliott School of International Affairs, the George Washington University.  In January 2007, he joined LMI Government Consulting as a senior fellow.  He serves on the Boards of Search for Common Ground, the Atlantic Council, the American Academy of Diplomacy and Elderhostel.  He is also a member of the Committee of International Advisors of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.  He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from Grinnell College, which in 1990 also awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Laws.  He is married to Judith Kaufmann, also a former career member of the U.S. Foreign Service and currently a consultant in international health diplomacy.

Members

Anne H. Cahn (September 2007 – September 2011) is a former scholar in residence at the American University.  Holder of a doctorate in political science from MIT, she has served as chief of the Social Impact Staff at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1977–81), special assistant to the deputy assistant secretary of defense (1980–81), and president and executive director of the Committee for National Security (1982–88).

Chester A. Crocker (1992 – Present) is the James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, where his teaching and research focus on conflict management and regional security issues.  He served as chairman of the Board of the United States Institute of Peace (1992–2004), and continues as a member of its Board.  From 1981–1989, he was U.S. assistant secretary of state for African Affairs.  As such, he was the principal diplomatic architect and mediator in the prolonged negotiations among Angola, Cuba, and South Africa that led to Namibia’s transition to independence, and to the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola.  He serves on the Boards of ASA Ltd., a NYSE-listed, closed-end fund focused on gold mining; Universal Corporation, Inc., a leading independent trading company in tobacco, agricultural, and lumber products; Good Governance Group Ltd; and First Africa Holdings Ltd.  He serves on the Advisory Board of the National Defense University in Washington and on the World Bank’s Independent Advisory Board. Crocker is the author of High Noon in Southern Africa: Making Peace in a Rough Neighborhood, co-author (with Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall) of Taming Intractable Conflicts: Mediation in the Hardest Cases, and co-editor of Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World; Grasping the Nettle: Analyzing Cases of Intractable Conflict; Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict; and Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World.

Ikram U. Khan (October 2008 – October 2012) is a "Fellow of the American Institute of Health Care Quality".  He is currently president of Quality Care Consultants, LLC.  Founded in 1992, this Las Vegas company provides services to employers, health insurers and hospitals in areas of healthcare policy, strategy and quality improvement initiatives combined with cost effective delivery of health care services.   Khan is a recipient of U.S. Presidential Recognition for "Steadfast Devotion to Health & Well Being of Patients" in January 2000 and a "Special Congressional Recognition for Invaluable Community Service in 1994".  He is a member of the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, an advisory board to U.S. Secretary of Defense. He received the "Distinguished Services Medal" from this University. Khan is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Sunrise Hospital, Las Vegas, a 700-bed hospital and Nevada Cancer Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada, a not for profit institute.  He has also served on various State Boards and Commissions where he received several national and state recognitions for his professional and community services.   Khan earned his Doctor of Medicine and Surgery degree at the University of Karachi, where he specialized in the field of forensic medicine, ophthalmology and Pathology. 

Kerry Kennedy (October 2008 – October 2012) has worked as a human rights activist since 1981 and has led over 40 human rights delegations to over 30 countries. At a time of diminished idealism and growing cynicism about public service, her life and lectures are testaments to the commitment to the basic value of human rights. In 1988, she established the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights to ensure protection of rights codified under the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, an organization that provides a base of support to human rights defenders.  Until 1995, she also served as executive director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, a non-profit organization that addresses problems of social justice in the spirit of Robert Kennedy. She is the author of Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World, which features interviews with human rights activists ranging from the famous Helen Prejean, Marian Wright Edelman, His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel and Oscar Arias, to name a few.

She is a recipient of many awards and honors, among them high honors from President Lech Walesa of Poland for aiding the solidarity movement and Woman of the Year 2001 award by Save the Children. Kennedy is chair of the Amnesty International USA Leadership Council and serves on the board of many organizations such as the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University, Human Rights First.  Kennedy is a graduate of Brown University and Boston College Law School.  She holds an honorary doctorate of laws from Le Moyne College and University of San Francisco Law School and an honorary doctorate of Human Letters from Bay Path College.

Stephen D. Krasner (2003 - 2004; October 2008 – October 2012) is the Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations at Stanford, a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy research, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.  Krasner began at Stanford in 1981 where he held a number of administrative positions including deputy director of the Freeman Spogli Institute and director of the Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. He has also served as chair of the Department of Political Science and served as an elected member of the Faculty Senate and on its executive committee.  He also has worked outside academia, and has served as director of the Policy Planning at the State Department from 2005 to 2007.   He also served as a member of the Policy Planning staff from 2001 to 2002 at the State Department and at the National Security Council.  Krasner is a former fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.  His research has focused primarily on the political determinants of international economic relations, U.S. foreign policy and sovereignty.  He holds a bachelor's degree from Cornell, a master's degree from Columbia and a doctorate from Harvard.  He taught at Harvard and the University of California-Los Angeles before arriving at Stanford. Krasner was a member of the Board of Directors of USIP in 2003 and 2004 and a member of the International Security Advisory Board at the United States Department of State in 2007.

Kathleen Martinez (September 2007 – September 2011) has been executive director of the World Institute on Disability, based in Oakland, CA, since September 2005.  Blind since birth, Martinez is an internationally recognized disability rights leader specializing in employment, asset building, independent living, international development, diversity, and gender issues.  Currently, Kathy oversees Proyecto Visión, WID’s National Technical Assistance Center to increase employment opportunities for Latinos with disabilities in the U.S., funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration and Access to Assets, an asset-building project to help reduce poverty among people with disabilities.  At WID, she also headed up the team that produced the acclaimed webzine DisabilityWorld (www.disabilityworld.org) in English and Spanish.  In spring 2005, Martinez carried out leadership development activities with disabled women in Ethiopia for the International Labour Organization.  In 2000 she co-organized a training for young disabled women from developing countries supported by the United Nations, and in 1997 she led the International Leadership Forum for Women with Disabilities in Washington, D.C.  Martinez also has participated in international training and development projects in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Americas.  She co-authored articles including “Change from Within” (Development Outreach, World Bank), “The Road to Independent Living in the USA: an historical perspective and contemporary challenges” (DisabilityWorld webzine) and “Latinos with Disabilities in the United States: Understanding and Addressing Barriers to Work” (Ability magazine).  In 2004–2005 Martinez testified at the U.S. Congress and addressed the United Nations Committee to draft a convention on human rights of disabled persons, national business leadership groups, chief diversity officers at Fortune 500 companies, NOW’s conference on women with disabilities, disabled students, asset development specialists and international conferences of independent living and disability rights leaders.  In 2002 she was appointed by President George W. Bush as one of fifteen members of the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency responsible for advising the President and Congress on disability policy.  In 2005 she was appointed as one of eight public members on the State Department’s Committee on Disability and Foreign Policy.  Earlier this year Martinez became a charter member of the AT&T Advisory Panel on Access and Aging, the group that advises the company about providing accessible communications.  A resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, Martinez is a percussionist specializing in a wide variety of musical styles.

Jeremy A. Rabkin (September 2007 – September 2011) is a professor at George Mason Law School in Arlington, Virginia, specializing in international law and constitutional history.  Rabkin received a B.A. from Cornell (1974) and earned a Ph.D. in political science at Harvard University.  He taught in the Department of Government at Cornell University from 1980 until the spring of 2007.  He serves on the Board of Academic Advisors of the American Enterprise Institute, on the Advisory Board of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and the Board of Directors of the Center for Individual Rights (a public interest law firm in Washington, D.C.).  Rabkin’s recent writing has focused on the history and continuing significance of national sovereignty, as in his most recent book, Law Without Nations (Princeton University Press, 2005).  His current research interests include the role of international organizations and international NGOs in developing countries.

Ron Silver (September 2007 – September 2011) is one of America’s leading actors, producers, and directors, and has starred on Broadway as well as in films and television.  He is also a committed activist whose voice has been heard on many issues facing the theatre community and the country at large.  President of Actors’ Equity Association for nine years (1991–2000), Silver was also the founder and President of the Creative Coalition.  Silver won Broadway’s Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in David Mamet’s Speed the Plow.  In films, Silver gave much-acclaimed performances in Paul Mazursky’s Enemies: A Love Story and the Academy Award-winning Reversal of Fortune. Silver also appeared as Henry Kissinger in the acclaimed Kissinger and Nixon for TNT, and produced and narrated Broken Promises: The U.N. at 60. The television film The Billionaire Boys Club earned Silver his first Emmy nomination. 

Before becoming an actor, Silver attended law school and received a Master’s Degree in Chinese History.  In addition to his appointment to the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace, Silver is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations as well as a member of the Program Committee at the Wilson Council, the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars.  He speaks Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, and bases his many activities in New York City.

Judy Van Rest (September 2007 – September 2011) was appointed Executive Vice President for the International Republican Institute (IRI) on August 2, 2004.  From April 14, 2003 to July 1, 2004, she served as senior advisor for Governance for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), Baghdad, Iraq.  In that capacity, she conducted outreach programs for Iraqi women to assist them in participating in the democratic development of their country.  She also served as CPA’s director of the Office of Democratic Initiatives, coordinating programs ranging from election administration, civic education, political party building, women’s leadership training, non-governmental organization development to local government, media infrastructure building, and transparency in government and civil society.  Van Rest was appointed to the Peace Corps as associate director for Management and Chief Information Officer in September 2001 and was responsible for formulating policies and implementing operation plans for both domestic and overseas Peace Corps missions.  She became regional director for the Europe, Mediterranean, and Asia Region on May 13, 2002, and managed a broad range of operational, policy, and procedural issues in support of more than 1800 volunteers and several hundred staff in 21 countries.  Prior to the Peace Corps, Van Rest served as regional director for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) programs for IRI (1994 to 2001), one of the core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy.  In that position, she directed nonpartisan democracy-building programs in, and traveled extensively to, countries of the former Soviet Union including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.  She also participated in observer missions for national and local elections in Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Mongolia and conducted political party seminars in Russia, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic.  She served as acting IRI president in summer 2001.  Van Rest was dhief of staff for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management from 1989 through 1992, and assisted in the direction of the agency that sets personnel policy for the federal civilian work force.  In addition, she held management positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Republican National Committee.  She was deputy to the special assistant to the president for White House Intergovernmental Affairs in 1981.  She also worked in a variety of communications positions, including editor of Commonsense, a quarterly political journal, and General Assignment Reporter for an Oklahoma daily newspaper, the Lawton Constitution/Morning Press.  Van Rest was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and graduated from the William Allen White School of Journalism, the University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Nancy Zirkin (October 2008 – October 2012) is the executive vice president for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, consisting of nearly 200 national organizations. While Zirkin officially joined the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in 2002, she has been a part of its various lobby efforts, including task forces on education reform, hate crimes, affirmative action, and judicial nominations, since the 1990s.  During the mid-1970s, Zirkin worked at several public interest organizations, including Common Cause and the Women's Equity Action League, but gained significant experience at the American Association of University Women (AAUW) where she became director of public policy and government relations. She distinguished herself there by rising to chief lobbyist and managing the coordination of the Equal Rights Amendment, Women's Vote Project and Civil Rights Act of 1991. Under Zirkin's leadership, along with Wade Henderson, president of LCCR, and Karen McGill Lawson, president of LCCREF, LCCR has grown to nearly four times its originally ten-person size, creating the infrastructure necessary to support the organization's growing institutional needs.

Ex-Officio Members

Department of Defense

Robert M. Gates (A representative is in the process of being finalized).

Department of State

David J. Kramer took the oath of office as assistant secretary of state for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor on March 21, 2008. From July 2005 to March of 2008, Kramer was deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, responsible for Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus affairs, as well as regional nonproliferation issues. Previously, he served in the Department of State Office of Policy Planning as a professional staff member, and senior advisor to the under secretary of state for Global Affairs. He also was executive director of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy in Washington. Before joining the government, he was a senior fellow at the Project for the New American Century, associate director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and assistant director of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, all in Washington. Prior to moving to Washington, he was a lecturer in Russian Studies at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts and a teaching fellow at Harvard University. He also served as an analyst for the Christian Science Monitor network during the collapse of the Soviet Union. A native of Massachusetts, Kramer received his M.A. in Soviet studies from Harvard University and his B.A. in Soviet Studies and Political Science from Tufts University.

National Defense University

Lieutenant General Frances C. Wilson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Sciences from Michigan State University.  Commissioned a Second Lieutenant in November 1972, she was the Honor Graduate and recipient of the Leadership Award from the United States Marine Corps Women Officer Basic School.  As a company grade officer, Lieutenant General Wilson served as an air traffic control officer at Yuma and Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Stations and as an Instructor at Marine Corps Development and Education Center’s Instructional Management School.  Following graduation from Amphibious Warfare School in 1980, she served as Staff Secretary, 3d Marine Division, III Marine Amphibious Force.  As a field grade officer she was a company officer, Brigade of Midshipmen, and an assistant professor in the Professional Development Department at the United States Naval Academy. After graduating with the 1985 class of the College of Naval Command and Staff, Naval War College, she reported to the Manpower Plans, Manpower and Reserve Affairs Department, Headquarters Marine Corps as a manpower management analyst.  She then served as special assistant for General and Flag Officer Matters, Joint Staff, and as executive assistant to the Vice Director, Joint Staff. Wilson commanded the Fourth Recruit Training Battalion at Parris Island Recruit Depot from 1988–1990.  She then participated in a Federal Executive Fellowship with the Brookings Institution before reporting to the Marine Forces Pacific staff as Requirements and Programs Officer.  In July 1993, she assumed command of Camp H.M. Smith and the Headquarters and Services Battalion, Marine Forces Pacific.  Returning to Washington, D.C. in 1995, she participated on Roles and Missions Coordination Group, Requirements and Plans, Headquarters Marine Corps before being assigned as secretary, Joint Staff.  Lieutenant General Wilson commanded Marine Corps Base Quantico and the 3d Force Service Support Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force.  She then directed Manpower Management Division, Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Headquarters Marine Corps and was the Marine Corps representative to the Secretary of Defense’s Reserve Force Policy Board.  She served as the Commandant, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, from 2003 to 2006. 

Wilson has earned Master degrees in education from Pepperdine University, psychology from the University of Northern Colorado, business management from Salve Regina College, National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, and a Doctor of Education from the University of Southern California.  She also completed the U.S. Army Basic Airborne Course, Armed Forces Staff College’s Joint and Combined Staff Officer School, National Defense University’s CAPSTONE course, Naval Post Graduate School’s Revolution in Business Practices, and Harvard University’s JFK School of Government's Senior Executive Course in National and International Security.  Lieutenant General Wilson has been awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, and Navy Achievement Medal; and is authorized to wear the Basic Parachutist Badge and the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff identification badges.

United States Institute of Peace (nonvoting)

Richard H. Solomon has been president of the Institute since September 1993.  As assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 1989 to 1992, he negotiated the first U.N. “Permanent Five” peacemaking agreement for Cambodia, had a leading role in the dialogue on nuclear issues among the United States and South and North Korea, helped establish the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) initiative, and led U.S. negotiations with Japan, Mongolia and Vietnam on important bilateral matters.  From 1992 to 1993, Solomon served as U.S. ambassador to the Philippines.  In that capacity, he coordinated the closure of the U.S. naval bases and developed a new framework for bilateral and regional security cooperation.  Solomon previously served as director of the Policy Planning at the State Department (1986–89) and senior staff member of the National Security Council (1971–76), where he was involved in the process of normalizing relations with the People’s Republic of China.  From 1976 to 1986, he was head of the Social Science Department at the RAND Corporation.  In 1995, Solomon was awarded the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service for his role in obtaining international agreement for – and fostering implementation of – the U.N. peace plan for Cambodia.  In 2005, Solomon was awarded the Hubert H. Humphrey Award for a career of “notable public service by a political scientist” by the American Political Science Association.  He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.