Condoleezza Rice Women Who Inspire Lecture Leadership Today: Opportunities and Challenges
On November 13, the Foreign Policy Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) hosted a conversation with FPI Senior Fellow Amb. Shirin Tahir-Kheli and Prime Minister Helen Clark. PM Clark discussed various aspects of her work in politics, defense, sustainable development, and global health. James Steinberg, Dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS, delivered introductory remarks.
Biographies
Rt Hon. Helen Clark was Prime Minister of New Zealand for three successive terms from 1999–2008. Throughout her tenure as Prime Minister and as a Member of Parliament over 27 years, Helen Clark engaged widely in policy development and advocacy across the international, economic, social, environmental, and cultural spheres.
In April 2009, Helen Clark became Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She was the first woman to lead the organization, and served two terms there. At the same time, she was also Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of all UN funds, programs, agencies, and departments working on development issues. As Administrator, she led UNDP to be ranked the most transparent global development organization. She completed her tenure in 2017.
Helen continues to be a strong voice for sustainable development, climate action, gender equality and women’s leadership, peace and justice, and action on pressing global health issues. In July 2020, she was appointed by the Director-General of the World Health Organization as a Co-Chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, called for by the World Health Assembly, which reported in May 2021. She chairs the boards of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, and other public good organizations and initiatives, and is a board member of others.
Amb. Shirin Tahir-Kheli is a Senior Fellow and Founding Director of the South Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She was Research Professor of International Relations. In 2011, Tahir-Kheli was named by Newsweek as one of the "150 Women Who Shake the World." She specializes in South Asia, nuclear non-proliferation, United Nations and U.S. foreign policy, and women's empowerment.
Hon. James B. Steinberg is Chairmain of SAIS Foreign Policy Institute and Dean of SAIS. He was University Professor of Social Science, International Affairs and Law at Syracuse University, where he was Dean of the Maxwell School from July 2011 until June 2016. Prior to becoming Dean he served as Deputy Secretary of State, the principal deputy to Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, from 2009-2011. From 2005-2008, Steinberg was Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Steinberg was vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.