Sarah Sewall brings decades of experience in government and academia to help IQT’s knowledge inform the policy debate. Dr. Sewall served as the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights, responsible for issues ranging from counterterrorism to refugees. She served on the Defense Policy Board under Secretaries Gates and Hagel. During the Clinton Administration, she was the inaugural Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance. She previously spent six years as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.

Dr. Sewall taught on the Harvard Kennedy School faculty for almost a decade, where she also directed the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and worked closely with the U.S. military to advance civilian protection in war. She is known for her pioneering work analyzing civilian casualties in the field and developing doctrine to prevent civilian harm. She also has been Minerva Chair at the Naval War College and the Speyer Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She graduated from Harvard College and received her doctorate from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.