Farah Pandith

Farah Pandith is a social entrepreneur, foreign policy strategist and former diplomat. She is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Strategic Advisor to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. In May 2015, she was appointed to Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson’s Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC). Ms. Pandith has served as a political appointee in the George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack H. Obama administrations. Most recently she was appointed the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She traveled to more than 80 countries in this role and launched global youth-focused initiatives and networks to counter violent extremism (CVE). Prior to this appointment, she was responsible for pioneering CVE initiatives Europe. She served on the National Security C ouncil and at the U.S. Agency for International Development. She left government in January 2014. She is writing a book and driving efforts to counter extremism through new organizations, programs and initiatives.