Elizabeth M. Cousens

Elizabeth M. Cousens (born October 27, 1963) is the current President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation.

Early life and education Cousens received her B.A. in history from the University of Puget Sound and a D.Phil. in International Relations from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

Career Cousins worked for several years at the U.S. Mission to the UN in New York. She was Principal Policy Advisor and Counselor to the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, and later served as the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council and Alternate Representative to the UN General Assembly where she led U.S. negotiations on the SDGs (2012-2014); served on the boards of UN agencies, funds, and programmes; and was U.S. representative to the UN Peacebuilding Commission.

Elizabeth Cousens became the UN Foundation’s third president and CEO in 2020, selected to lead the Foundation’s next generation of work to support the United Nations.

Works

Elizabeth M. Cousens (2018). Extremely loud and uncomfortably close: Lessons of the “Great War” 100 years on. Brookings Institution. Elizabeth Cousens (2018). 'Why I Won't Apologize for Using the Word "Multilateralism'. United Nations Foundation