Sarah Mendelson

Distinguished Service Professor of Public Policy and Head of Heinz College in Washington, DC

Ambassador Sarah E. Mendelson served as the US Representative to the Economic and Social Council at the United Nations until January 20, 2017.

Confirmed by the Senate in October 2015, she was the USUN lead on international development, human rights, and humanitarian affairs. There she oversaw campaigns to get country-specific resolutions passed in the General Assembly and to get NGOs, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, accredited to the UN. She led efforts to elevate the issue of combating human trafficking and was senior lead for the President's Summit on Refugees.

Prior to her appointment as Ambassador, she served as a Deputy Assistant Administrator at USAID from 2010-2014 where she was the Agency lead on democracy, human rights, and governance. A long time policy entrepreneur, she has spent over two decades working on development and human rights as a scholar and practitioner including in Moscow with the National Democratic Institute, on the faculty of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and over a decade as senior adviser and inaugural director of the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. There she also worked as a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program where she over saw focus groups, public opinion surveys, and social marketing campaigns in Russia on a range of issues.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of over 70 scholarly and public policy publications, Ambassador Mendelson received her BA in History from Yale University and her PhD in political science from Columbia University.

Courses Taught

90-858 - How Ideas Become Policy
90-864 - Democracy Now & Next
90-883 - Democracy/Human Rights & Sustain Dev in 21st Century

Publications & Honors

Room 16 Priorities Emerging from 2021 17 Rooms Exercise, (co-authored with Elizabeth Andersen with input from Room 16 participants), November 2021,
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-Room-documents_Room16.pdf
Reversing the Tide: Towards a New US Strategy to Support Democracy and Counter Authoritarianism, April 2021, https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2021-04/Democracy_Task_Force_Report_2021_Final4_04132021.pdf

New Thinking on Democracy at Home and Abroad, April 2021, https://www.americanambassadorslive.org/post/new-thinking-on-democracy-at-home-and-abroad

If You Build It They Will Come, February 2021, https://www.americanpurpose.com/articles/if-you-build-it-they-will-come/

Combating Human Trafficking and the Biden Administration, January 2021, https://www.cfr.org/blog/combating-human-trafficking-and-biden-administration

Room 16 Priorities Emerging from 2020 17 Rooms Exercise, (co-authored with Nancy Lindborg with input from Room 16 participants), November 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/16.pdf
Carnegie Mellon University 2020 Voluntary University Review, September 2020, https://www.cmu.edu/leadership/the-provost/provost-initiatives/cmu-vur-2020

Inequalities, the SDGs, and the human rights movement in the US and around the world, June 12, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2020/06/12/inequality-the-sdgs-and-the-human-rights-movement-in-the-us-and-around-the-world

The Virus and the Global Goals: What Could COVID-19 Mean for Sustainable Development, April 7, 2020, https://www.globaldashboard.org/2020/04/07/the-virus-and-the-global-goals-what-could-covid-19-mean-for-sustainable-development/

The 'SDG Effect': The Emerging Pittsburgh Platform to Deliver the Global Goals Locally, January 30, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/01/30/the-sdg-effect-the-emerging-pittsburgh-platform-to-deliver-the-global-goals-locally/?utm_campaign=Global%20Economy%20and%20Development&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=83149721

Foundations Should Invest in Building the Field of Sustainable Development, Winter 2020, Stanford Social Innovation Review, faculty-research/profiles/profiles/sarah-mendelson/ssir_winter2020-viewpoint-mendelson-sdgs.pdf

How to Get Beyond the Doom and Gloom: Align OGP with the Sustainable Development Goals, Open Government Partnership (OGP), June 20, 2019, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/stories/how-to-get-beyond-the-doom-and-gloom-align-ogp-with-the-sustainable-development-goals/

US Cities Leading on the Sustainable Development Goals, Brookings, December 19, 2018, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/12/19/us-cities-leading-on-the-sustainable-development-goals/

Young People, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Liberal World Order: What is to be Done? NYU’s Center on International Cooperation (NYU/CIC), October 9, 2018, https://cic.nyu.edu/blog/young-people-sustainable-development-goals-and-liberal-world-order-what-be-done , Medium.com, https://medium.com/cic-international-insights/young-people-the-sustainable-development-goals-and-the-liberal-world-order-what-is-to-be-done-fc648e3b2d21

Weaponizing Social Media: Heinz Experts on Troll Farms and Fake News, Heinz College News, October 2018 ( https://www.heinz.cmu.edu/media/2018/October/troll-farms-and-fake-news-social-media-weaponization)

The Putin Problem: Ambassador Mendelson Talks Policy, Propaganda, and Russian Politics, Heinz College News, October 2018 ( https://www.heinz.cmu.edu/media/2018/October/the-putin-problem)

We Need An Updated Approach to Combat Human Trafficking, The Hill, June 2018 (http://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/394774-we-need-an-updated-approach-to-human-trafficking)

A Research and Writing Grant As An Inflection Point In A Career, MacArthur Foundation, June 2018 (https://www.macfound.org/press/40-years-40-stories/research-and-writing-grant-inflection-point-career/)

Additional Information

Contact

Sarah Mendelson 202-403-8606 smendelson@cmu.edu

Heinz College, Washington DC

Current Project: #JustRecovery: What Impact are Covid 19 Relief and Recovery Efforts Having on Social Justice and Equity Gaps? Ambassador Mendelson, Heinz students and in partnership with a number of universities and thought partners, are looking at social justice gaps using open data sets in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Toronto. This work addresses a number of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, through grants to CMU, as an outgrowth of the Brookings Institution and The Rockefeller Foundation Flagship “17 Rooms” exercise. Together with students, we are translating the data into SDG targets and then actual numbers of people to identify who is experiencing social justice gaps and who is being left behind. The need for more disaggregated data by race and gender as well as the need for more transparency in the distribution of Covid relief and recovery packages are emerging as preliminary findings and critical issues that, if not remedied, could impede a just recovery as well as progress on the SDGs in these cities in the wake of the pandemic. This project also involves the creation of a Community of Practice to teach and partner with the next generation, Cohort 2030, on social justice and human rights using the SDGs and disaggregated data. The project touches on numerous SDGs including SDG 16 (access to justice and combating corruption); SDG 2 (addressing food insecurity); SDG 3 (health and wellbeing); SDG 4 (educating the next generation about the SDGs); SDG 5 (gender); SDG 10 (reducing inequalities); SDG 11 (sustainable cities); and SDG 17 (university partnership to advance the SDGs).

Sarah Mendelson

Distinguished Service Professor of Public Policy and Head of Heinz College in Washington, DC

Courses Taught

CMU's Sustainability Initiative

Publications & Honors

Additional Information