THE FOREIGN POLICY INSTITUTE

Sharon Waxman is President and CEO of the Fair Labor Association, a non-profit, multi-stakeholder initiative working at the intersection of business and human rights. 

Previously, Waxman served as Vice President for public policy and advocacy at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where she directed the IRC’s Washington office and led a global team based in Africa, the Middle East, Brussels, Geneva, London, New York, and Washington.  Before that, as Deputy to the Undersecretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights during President Obama’s first term, she worked extensively on rights and security issues and provided oversight of five Bureaus and two Ambassadorial offices.  For more than a decade, she served as Senior National Security Advisor to U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and was a chief negotiator for his work as Judiciary Refugee Subcommittee chair during the Iraq war.  Earlier in her career, she served as Associate Staff to the Senate Appropriations Committee and developed funding strategies for development and foreign assistance programs. 

Waxman has served on the Board of the US Global Leadership Coalition, which includes members of the business, development, humanitarian and defense communities and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She received her Masters of International Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and her B.A. in Middle East Studies and International Development from the University of California, Berkeley.