Released by the Office of Policy Planning
August 17, 2007
Nazanin Ash joined the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff in June 2007, responsible for foreign assistance and aid effectiveness issues. Previously, she served as Chief of Staff to the first Director of Foreign Assistance and Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. From 2004 through 2005, Ms. Ash served as the Senior Policy Advisor to the first U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In 2003, Ms. Ash was appointed by the President as one of 12 White House Fellows, serving first in the Office of the Undersecretary for Global Affairs at the Department of State and then in the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator.
From 2002-2003, Ms. Ash was the HIV/AIDS program officer for ActionAid-Kenya, one of the largest NGOs in Kenya and a leading advocacy and local capacity-building institution. Ms. Ash developed and led the implementation of ActionAid-Kenya's national HIV/AIDS strategy, which supported over 250 local partners in 24 development initiative sites across Kenya.
Ms. Ash received her B.A. in political science from Bryn Mawr College, where received the Hope Wearn Troxell Memorial Prize for the greatest contribution to the College community. She received her Master in Public Policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she was a Public Service Fellow, an Imagitas Fellow, and a Sheldon Fellow. In 2003 she received the Kennedy School's Rising Star Award, awarded annually to two alumni selected from among the previous four classes of Kennedy School graduates.
