In February 2009, Mike Abramowitz was appointed Director of the Committee on Conscience, which conducts the genocide prevention efforts of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Prior to his appointment, he worked as a reporter and editor for The Washington Post since 1985. Among the subjects he covered were local and national politics, foreign policy, health care, and business. Between 2006 and 2009, Abramowitz was White House correspondent for the Post, covering a variety of subjects, including the Bush administration’s conduct of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the crisis in Darfur. He also served as the National Editor of the Post between 2000 and 2006, helping supervise the Post’s coverage of national politics, the federal government, social policy, science and national security.
Abramowitz graduated from Harvard University after majoring in Government. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-resident fellow of the German Marshall Fund and was a media fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
Jean Freedberg is Policy and Programs Director of the Committee on Conscience, the genocide prevention program of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She joined the Museum as Director of Communications in 2006, with a long background in field of human rights and international political development. Before joining the Museum, she spent eight years with the National Democratic Institute, (NDI) an international nonpartisan organization that helps people around the world strengthen their country’s democratic institutions. At NDI she served as Public Affairs Director, as well as Country Director in Guyana, for two years assisting citizens in this South American country re-write their constitution.
For more than 25 years Jean has focused her career on helping non-profits create innovative and effective strategies for getting out their messages and engaging their public and policy audiences. She has served as Communications Director for Amnesty International USA, and the Sierra Club, and ran her own strategic communications consultancy in San Francisco. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, she holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Cameron Hudson joined the staff of the Committee on Conscience as Senior Advisor after more than a decade of government service. Until August 2011, Cameron worked as the Chief of Staff to the President’s Special Envoy for Sudan, Ambassador Princeton Lyman. In that capacity, Cameron served as the principal policy advisor to the Envoy, and his predecessor Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, and acted as the State Department focal point for the policy process on Sudan. In this capacity, he traveled monthly to Sudan, Qatar, and neighboring states as part of the US delegation to North-South and Darfur peace talks. Prior to that, Cameron served as the Director for African Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council at the White House from 2005-2009. During that period, Cameron lead the interagency policy-making process in drafting new sanctions on Sudan in response to the genocide in Darfur, responding to elections-related violence in Nigeria and Kenya, and developing policy responses to internal conflicts in Eastern Congo, LRA-affected areas, and Somali, inter alia. Cameron began his government service as an economist and intelligence analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency with a focus on corruption, financial management, and resource-driven conflict in Africa. Prior to his government service, Cameron worked as a democracy and governance officer on contracts with the United Nations, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the International Organization for Migration in the former Yugoslavia. Cameron holds undergraduate degrees in Foreign Affairs, Economics, and French from the University of Virginia and a Masters Degree focused on Development Economics from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Amanda Rooney is the Executive Assistant for the Committee on Conscience, working to provide logistical support for staff and programs. She has been with the Museum since 2010 when she worked with National Planning and Administration and Education departments as an intern. She has two M.A.s in Russian and Eastern European Studies and History from Florida State University and a B.A. in History from Thiel College. She also can speak and read Russian and German.
Jackie Scutari is Program Coordinator for the Committee on Conscience, where she has worked since October 2006. Her responsibilities include research, writing, and managing the internship program, as well as programming for foreign policy professionals and the general public. She holds a M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University and a B.A. in Psychology from Georgetown University.
Sara Weisman is the Outreach Coordinator for the Committee on Conscience, working to engage university students and other key Museum audiences in the activities of the Committee. Sara previously served as Program Assistant for the Committee on Conscience, providing support to the Genocide Prevention Task Force. She previously worked as an executive assistant for the Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Sara has a B.A. in International Affairs with concentrations in Development and Economics from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.
