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Plenary Keynote Speaker
 Swanee
Hunt’s mission is to achieve gender parity, especially as
a means to end war and rebuild societies, as well as to alleviate
poverty and other human suffering. She is the founding director
of the Women
and Public Policy Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School
of Government, where she also teaches “Inclusive Security”,
exploring why women are systematically excluded from peace processes
and the policy steps needed to rectify the problem. She has taught
at Harvard College and lectured at the business school, law school,
and elsewhere across the campus.
An expert on domestic policy and foreign affairs, Hunt is president
of Hunt
Alternatives Fund, a foundation that has committed nearly
$70 million to provoking social change at local, national, and
global levels. Individually and through her foundation, she has
given more than $120 million to creating a more just world. The
Fund operates out of Cambridge, Massachusetts and is focused on
strengthening youth arts organizations, supporting leaders of
social movements, supporting women’s leadership in conflict
regions, ending sexual trafficking, and increasing philanthropy.
Hunt also chairs The
Initiative for Inclusive Security (including the Women Waging
Peace Network), which advocates for the full participation of
all stakeholders, particularly women, in peace processes. She
has conducted training for women leaders in more than 40 countries.
From 1993 to 1997, Hunt served as ambassador to Austria, where
she hosted negotiations and international symposia focused on
stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states. Later, she became a
specialist in the role of women in post-communist Europe; in July
1997, she launched “Vital Voices: Women in Democracy,” a
conference convening 320 women leaders in business, law, and politics
from 39 countries. The conference spawned the documentary Voices
as well as an ensuing US State Department initiative, led by Madeleine
Albright and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and later an NGO with the
same name.
Hunt began her career in 1979 as Minister of Pastoral Care at
the Capital Heights Presbyterian Church, she served the ecumenical
partnership of two congregations in Denver in the early 1980s.
In 1981, she founded Karis Community, a residential program for
the mentally ill, and served as its co-director until 1983. In
1986, Hunt co-founded the Colorado Women’s Foundation, which
helps fund programs to help women achieve self-sufficiency. From
1988 to 1993, she was chair of the Governor’s Coordinating
Council on Housing and the Homeless, a position she was appointed
to by Colorado Governor Roy Romer. There she helped create a cohesive
initiative of municipal, state, and national government players
while working with representatives from the business and nonprofit
communities. She was appointed co-chair of the Denver Initiative
on Families and Children by Denver Mayor Federico Peña
in 1991, where she worked to shape a unified agenda for urban
children and their families. In 1992, Hunt was appointed by Denver
Mayor Wellington Webb as co-chair of the Human Capital Agenda
to co-lead an initiative to develop public policy related to education,
health, safety, and employment needs through a community-based
decision process.
Hunt is active in Democratic politics, focusing on increasing
diverse representation. Her passion for mental health reform and
advocacy inspired her foray into politics. During former President
Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, she co-chaired “Serious
Women, Serious Issues, Serious Money”—widely considered
the first time women from all walks of life came together as a
united front to provide major financial backing for a national
political campaign. She continues to convene current or potential
office holders for substantive discussions with voters.
Hunt has authored numerous articles for
Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Herald Tribune,
Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, and others.
Her book, This
Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace, won
the 2005 PEN/New England Award for non-fiction and included a
foreword by former President Clinton. Her memoir, Half-Life
of a Zealot was published in October 2006. Hunt has also
provided news commentary and analysis on international and domestic
television networks, including CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and CBS Evening
News.
Hunt is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves
on the board of Crisis Group. She holds two master’s degrees,
a doctorate in theology, and six honorary degrees. She has received
numerous awards from groups as varied as the United Methodist
Church, United Way, Anti-Defamation League, American Mental Health
Association, National Women’s Forum, International Education
Association, and Boston Chamber of Commerce. In 2007, Hunt was
inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Hunt’s photographs have been exhibited in more than a
dozen one-woman shows in five countries. Her musical composition, "The
Witness Cantata," for five soloists and chorus, has had
twelve performances in six cities. She is married to Charles
Ansbacher, conductor of the Boston
Landmarks Orchestra and principal guest conductor of orchestras
in Russia, Bosnia, and Kyrgyzstan. Her world includes her husband,
their three children, three grandchildren, horse, cat, and parrot. |
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