Michelle Nunn

Mary Michelle Nunn is an American philanthropic executive and politician. Since 2015 she has been president and CEO of CARE USA, the American national member of CARE International, the humanitarian aid and international development agency. She was CEO of Points of Light, an American nonprofit organization, from 2007 to 2013, and is a member of its board of directors as of 2015. She had been an executive for the volunteer service organization since 1990, previously running the predecessor and member organizations Hands On Atlanta, City Cares, and HandsOn Network. Nunn, a member of the Democratic Party, was her party's nominee in the race for Georgia's U.S. Senate seat in 2014. She is the daughter of former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn.

Early life and early education Michelle Nunn is the daughter of Sam Nunn, a lawyer, farmer, and politician, and Colleen Ann (née O'Brien) Nunn, who worked for the U.S. State Department, and then briefly for the Central Intelligence Agency under foreign service cover, before becoming a stay-at-home mother. The family is Methodist. and initially lived in nearby Perry, Georgia, where her grandfather had been mayor and where the family had a farm. When she was six, the family moved to Bethesda, Maryland, She credits her mother for having "really safeguarded a very normal and private environment for us." where she played on the basketball team

She attended the University of Virginia, majoring in history She studied at the University of Oxford Founded in 1989 by twelve young professionals, Rapidly expanding and needing someone to help manage their efforts, they hired Nunn on a part-time basis as their executive director and only paid staffer (despite the title, she later described the position at first as "a glorified internship"). Nunn later said, "I had a real passion for community service and volunteerism, so I had a real passion for the work." (She was sometimes referred to in the press without the 'interim' designation. ) Subsequently, Nunn returned to focusing on Hands On Atlanta, c. 1995–1998. She earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2001.

At a beach ceremony on Cumberland Island in Georgia on June 2, 2001, Nunn married Ron Martin Jr., who works in the real estate business. The couple live in the Inman Park neighborhood of Atlanta with their two children.

Nunn considered a run in the 2004 U.S. Senate election in Georgia, when Democratic incumbent Zell Miller decided to retire. She was assessed at the time by Emory University political scientist Merle Black as having few political assets other than her father's name. In 2004, City Cares renamed itself to the HandsOn Network. Later in 2006, she was the editor of Be The Change! Change the World. Change Yourself., a collection of stories from hundreds of volunteers. It contained forewords from George H.W. Bush and Tom Brokaw and was republished in 2012.

In 2007, the Points of Light Foundation began talks with the HandsOn Network to join forces through a merger to create one national organization with local affiliates focused on volunteering and service. They formally combined forces on August 11, 2007, to become the Points of Light and Hands On Network (later Points of Light Institute and later still just Points of Light). Nunn presided over the merger, saying of its motivation, "We both could have continued along the route we were on, growing incrementally, but I believe neither of us would have achieved the kind of exponential change we wanted." She also ensured that the combined operation had its main offices in Atlanta. During this time, Nunn's compensation grew from $120,000 to $250,000, which she later said was still less than that of her predecessor's $325,000. Nunn's trip to Texas to meet with George H. W. Bush had been a key element in forming the merger. Neil Bush, the chair of Points of Light, characterized Nunn as "a fabulous leader". By 2009, it had a budget of $39 million and its associated HandsOn Network affiliates had a collective budget of $180 million. as the umbrella organization Islamic Relief Worldwide has been accused of having ties to Hamas but has denied any such links.

2014 U.S. Senate run

When Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss from Georgia announced in January 2013 that he would retire after two terms, his seat—which had once been held by her father—became open. Though she was little known to voters, (She was granted a leave of absence from her position with Points of Light. ) She said: "Our opportunity is to define ourselves.... I think people are really tired of the mudslinging and the silliness [contemporary politics]." The contest garnered national interest since Democratic control of the Senate might depend upon it. The Republican primary resulted in a July 22 runoff contest won by businessman David Perdue, a cousin of former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue. This set up a race between two self-described political "outsiders" with well-known-in-state political family names, each seeking to reach moderate and independent voters. Polls throughout the race indicated that it was close. It said that likely attack lines against Nunn would include that she was "too liberal" and "not a 'real' Georgian" and that she should make appeals to specific groups for support and funds, including Jews, Asian Americans, and members of the LGBTQ community. She declined to say whether she would have voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act had she been in the Senate but said that going forward, some aspects of it should be fixed rather than the whole law being eliminated. She criticized Georgia's refusal to accept Medicaid expansion under the act. Nunn favored construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and opposed the Obama administration's proposed cuts to defense spending.

Nunn's stump speech emphasized an appeal to bipartisanship. She proposed that members of Congress should be forced to pass a budget each year or forfeit their pay, said there was blame on both sides for ongoing Congressional dysfunction, and declined to say whether she would support Harry Reid remaining as Senate Majority Leader. She received support and donations from former Republican Senators Richard Lugar and John Warner, both of whom were close to her father, and support from former Georgia Senator and Governor Zell Miller, a Democrat who had endorsed Republicans over the previous decade. However, the use by Nunn's campaign commercials of photographs of her with George H. W. Bush drew a series of objections from the former president, who endorsed Perdue. Neil Bush neither endorsed nor opposed her candidacy, In all, Nunn raised $14 million during the campaign. The loss was part of a wave of Republican victories across the nation. Nunn failed to improve on Obama's losing percentages in the state from two years earlier and any changes in the state's demographics were not enough. Nevertheless, Nunn took credit for making the party competitive in the otherwise inhospitable South: "We put Georgia in play. We have reminded people what a two-party system looks like." Following the election, she returned to Points of Light in early 2015 as a member of its board of directors but not as its CEO.

CARE USA In April 2015, CARE USA, the American national member of CARE International, a major international humanitarian aid agency delivering emergency relief and engaging in long-term international development projects, announced that Nunn would join the organization as its new president and CEO, effective July 1. Nunn was named to replace Helene D. Gayle, who had announced she was stepping down after nearly a decade of service at the organization. The position would allow Nunn to remain in Atlanta, where CARE USA had some 200 employees.

With CARE, Nunn has sought to leverage the skills and concerns of women leaders in the Atlanta area – which besides CARE is also home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Carter Center, MAP International, MedShare, the Task Force for Global Health, and Habitat for Humanity International – to produce a "greater global constellation" that would look at the requirements of women and children around the world who were in situations of extreme. Nunn has also focused on the response to the Syrian refugee crisis, traveling to the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan as well as to sites in Turkey, and saying upon her return, "We are going to have a continued European migration crisis if we don't support people to rebuild their lives and create some hope in the places where they are living." At CARE's 2018 national conference, Nunn was one of several speakers who sought to link the organization's purpose to the worldwide Me Too movement. Nunn also expressed concern over isolationist tendencies in American foreign policy: "For more than 70 years, the United States has led efforts to promote peace, prosperity, and share values to foster global stability. But recently that legacy has been under threat." During the United States elections, 2020, Nunn, along with Georgian Republican Party figure Eric Tanenblatt, were co-chairs of Georgia Support the Vote, a nonpartisan effort to gain support from the statewide business community toward make voting easier and safer during the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia. By 2021, Nunn and CARE USA were heavily involved in trying to facilitate deployment of COVID-19 vaccines in low-income countries and constructing temporary medical facilities to address a devastating wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

Awards and honors Nunn was chosen in 2006 as one of the 100 most influential Georgians by Georgia Trend. In 2010, she received a Global Ambassador of Youth Award from the World Leadership Awards for her work with volunteer organizations. In 2012, Nunn was named for the sixth straight time to The NonProfit Times annual Power & Influence Top 50 list of the most influential nonprofit executives.

Nunn, along with her father, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Oglethorpe University in 2006. In 2010, she received an honorary Doctor of Public Service from Wesleyan College.

In 2022 Nunn was the recipient of the Academy of International Business (AIB) International Executive of the Year Award.