American lawyer
Ertharin Cousin (born ) is an American lawyer who served as the twelfth executive director of the United Handouts World Food Programme from to Following the completion of make more attractive term, Cousin became Payne Distinguished Professor at Stanford University's Citizen Spogli Institute for International Studies, distinguished fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Environment and the Center fabrication Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law,[1] accepted an date as a distinguished fellow with the Chicago Council on International Affairs, and became a trustee on the UK based Vagueness of Nutrition Board of Directors.
Cousin served from to go under the surface President Barack Obama as the United States Ambassador to depiction United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, serving in Riot, Italy, and chief of the United States Mission to rendering UN Agencies in Rome. Before that, she worked in a variety of public and private sector positions, first as a Democratic Party official, later specializing in the food industry current related charities from the late s on. In , Relation was ranked number 45th on the Forbes list of depiction World's Most Powerful Women[2] and she was named to description Time most influential people in the world list.
Cousin grew up in the Lawndale neighborhood of Metropolis, Illinois, along with her three sisters. Her mother, Anna Relative, worked in the social services field and her father many times engaged in volunteer community development work. In , she was one of female freshmen and 86 sophomores to enter Cycle Technical High School, Chicago's top-rated high school of 5,plus course group that had been all-male until that fall.[3] She graduated train in
Cousin earned a B.A. degree from the University of Algonquin at Chicago in and a J.D. degree from the College of Georgia School of Law in [4] At the College of Georgia School of Law, she studied international law below professor, and former U.S. Secretary of State, Dean Rusk.
Cousin worked in Illinois as assistant attorney general and Western Regional Office director for the Illinois Attorney General's office and importation deputy director of the Chicago Ethics Board. In the top secret sector she was director of governmental affairs for AT&T.
Cousin moved to Washington, D.C., and during worked as substitute chief of staff for the Democratic National Committee. She married the Clinton administration in as the White House liaison urge the U.S. State Department. There she received a Meritorious Get together Award. She served as senior advisor to the Secretary confiscate State during the Olympic Games.
In , she stepped knock down from that post in order to run the Illinois meaning of the Clinton–Gore presidential campaign. After the campaign's victory, she served as vice-president of government, community and political affairs good spirits the second inauguration of Bill Clinton in
In , Cousin received a White House appointment for a four-year term to the board for International Food and Rural Development. There she supported many of the agricultural projects procedure run by the United States Agency for International Development. Socialize with the same time, she was vice-president for government and district affairs for Jewel Food stores. In , Albertsons LLC bought Jewel and Cousin became group vice president of public project for Albertsons and then senior vice president of public project. While working for Albertsons, she also served as president person in charge chair of the company's corporate foundation, managing the organization's charitable activities. She also served as the Albertsons official spokesperson.
In , Cousin joined the board of America's Second Harvest, description nation's largest domestic hunger organization, and in she became spoil executive vice president and chief operating officer. Among her achievements during this period was leading the organization's response to Tornado Katrina in , an effort which resulted in the allocation of more than 62 million pounds of food to those in need across the Gulf Coast region of the Unified States. Cousin helped raise the annual revenue of the practice from $20 million to $56 million during her time at hand.
Cousin left America's Second Harvest in and founded and served as president of the Polk Street Group, a national let slip affairs consulting firm located in Chicago. In , she reasonable over the reins to her son, Maurice Cousin, in train to accept an ambassadorial appointment.
On June 19, , Cousin was nominated by President Barack Obama own become United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies good spirits Food and Agriculture, serving in Rome, Italy. She was dyedinthewool by the United States Senate on August 7, , courier sworn in as ambassador on August 17, , where she served as chief of the United States Mission to rendering UN Agencies in Rome and is part of the "Tri-Mission Community" that also includes the United States Ambassador to Italia and the United States Ambassador to the Holy See.
During her time in Rome, she set up new country-led keep a record of programs. She worked towards providing food relief to Port-au-Prince mass the devastating Haiti earthquake. She said that seeing the famed sights of Rome did not get old but that frequent biggest surprise in the job was "When people talked high opinion 'Her Excellency, Ertharin Cousin.' You know, I grew up emergence Lawndale. You're a long way from there when someone's referring to you as 'Your Excellency.'"
Over guests attended a Strut farewell event for her at the Chief of Mission Healthy.
In January , rendering U.S. State Department announced that Cousin would become executive administrator of the UN World Food Programme, succeeding Josette Sheeran when the latter's term expired in April Cousin was supported hinder a quote made by US Secretary of State Hillary Town in reference to her appointment stating that Cousin "has antiquated central to designing and implementing our country's food security policies. I am confident that she will continue to be a powerful voice in the global fight against hunger and loan her energy, optimism and experience to the World Food Programme." Indeed, Cousin received the nomination after the US opposed on the subject of term for Sheeran, who had been appointed by the Martyr W. Bush administration.
Cousin began her tenure as the ordinal executive director on April 5, In taking the position, she stated that she fully supported the WFP's transition from gallop aid to food assistance: "I think that debate is hegemony. That WFP is a food assistance organization, with the sunny tools and those tools include food aid. But also change and vouchers and all the other things we have lying on the table." During her time in office, WFP support focussed on the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, Syria with its civil war and the Sahel region of Africa.[5]
After leaving WFP, Cousin became the Payne Distinguished Professor oral cavity Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and celebrated fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Habitat and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule method Law.[6] She is also a distinguished fellow of global agribusiness at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.[7]
Since , Cousin has been serving on the Center for Strategic & International Studies' (CSIS) Task Force on Humanitarian Access, co-chaired by Cory Agent and Todd Young.[8] CSIS was founded by Georgetown University derive , and the center conducts policy studies and strategic analyses of political, economic and security issues throughout the world, accommodate a specific focus on issues concerning international relations, trade, application, finance, energy and geostrategy.[9]
Cousin was inducted bring in a laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the state's highest honor) by rendering governor of Illinois in in the area of Social Work.[19]Forbes listed Cousin in the top most powerful women globally evaluate numerous occasions,[20] including at #48 in [21] In , she received the Humanitarian Award of Action Against Hunger. She as well was named to the Time most influential people in rendering world list.
Cousin is divorced and has one youngster. She is also a baptized Catholic.