About USIP

The Board of Directors

By law, the United States Institute of Peace is governed by a bipartisan Board of Directors. The board is composed of twelve members from outside federal service appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate, and four ex-officio members: the secretary of state (who may designate another Senate-confirmed State Department official), the secretary of defense (who may designate another Senate-confirmed Defense Department official), the president of the National Defense University (who may designate the vice president of the National Defense University), and the president of the Institute (nonvoting). The board is prohibited by law from having more than eight voting members of the same political party.

The Board of Directors actively oversees the activities of the United States Institute of Peace—setting long-term goals and priorities for the Institute as well as monitoring the Institute's financial, administrative, and personnel policies. The board approves major new program initiatives and makes final decisions in the selection of Institute grantees, fellows, and winners of the National Peace Essay Contest for high school students. To accomplish these tasks, the board meets five times each year in regular meetings, with special meetings of Board subgroups convened as necessary.

Members appointed to serve on the Board of Directors may serve no more than two four-year terms, although they may continue to serve until replaced. Many distinguished Americans from across the country have served on the board since the Institute's founding.

The chair and vice chair of the Board of Directors are elected by the board from among the twelve directors appointed from outside federal service. The chair, or the vice chair in the chair's absence, presides over all meetings of the board and serves for a term of three years. The current chair of the Board of Directors is J. Robinson West.

Past Chairs of the Board of Directors

• Chester A. Crocker, 1992-2004
  Read an address to the board: The Growth of a Unique Federal Agency
  August 4, 2004
• Elspeth Davies Rostow, 1991-1992
• John Norton Moore, 1986-1991

Current Board

• J. Robinson West (Chairman)
  Chairman, PFC Energy
• George E. Moose (Vice Chairman)
  Adjunct Professor of Practice, The George Washington University
• Anne H. Cahn
  Former Scholar in Residence, American University
• Chester A. Crocker
  James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
• Ikram U. Khan
  President, Quality Care Consultants, LLC
• Kerry Kennedy
  Human Rights Activist
• Stephen D. Krasner
  Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations, Stanford University
• Kathleen Martinez
  Executive Director, World Institute on Disability
• Jeremy A. Rabkin
  Professor, George Mason School of Law
• Ron Silver
  Founder and President, The Creative Coalition
• Judy Van Rest
  Executive Vice President, International Republican Institute
• Nancy Zirkin
  Executive Vice President, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

Members ex officio

• Robert M. Gates
  Department of Defense
• David J. Kramer
  Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Department of State
• Richard H. Solomon
  President, United States Institute of Peace (nonvoting)
• Frances C. Wilson
  Lieutenant General, U.S. Marine Corps, President, National Defense University

Read More

• In Memoriam: Institute Mourns Former Board Member Peter W. Rodman
  The U.S. Institute of Peace was deeply saddened to learn of the untimely death on August 2 of Peter Warren Rodman. Rodman served as the Department of Defense’s ex officio representative on the Institute’s board from March 2004 until March 2007.
• In Memoriam: Christopher H. Phillips
  Christopher H. Phillips, USIP board member from 1993 to 1996, passed away on January 10, 2008 in Gloucester, MA.
• Institute Mourns Passing of Former Board Member and Friend Elspeth Davies Rostow
  Elspeth Davies Rostow, USIP board member from 1987 to 1991, passed away on December 9, 2007.
• Senate Confirms New USIP Board Members
  News Release, June 6, 2007
• Institute Mourns Passing of Former Board Member and Friend Seymour Martin Lipset
  Seymour Martin Lipset, USIP board member from 1995 to 2006, and vice chair from 2001-2004, passed away on December 31, 2007.
• Four New Members Join Board
  PeaceWatch, August/October 2003