Farah Pandith

Farah Pandith (born January 13, 1968) is an American academic of Indian descent. She was appointed the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities in June 2009 by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The position was made specifically for her after she briefed Secretary Clinton about her work in the Bush Administration. She had the rare distinction of being a political appointee for two Republican presidents and President Obama. When she was the Special Representative she traveled to almost 100 countries. After serving under both Secretaries Clinton and John Kerry, she left government. She said she came to Washington after 9/11 again and wanted to serve – she left after more than a decade in public service. She worked at USAID and then went to the National Security Council and then the U.S. Department of State. When she left in 2014, she returned to her home state of Massachusetts.

Farah Pandith is a senior fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. Before that she had been a Spring fellow at the Institute of Politics. Right after leaving government she began working with the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue from outside of government. She is currently the Head of Strategy for ISD. She is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Provided by Wikipedia