Isobel Coleman

Former Ambassador Isobel Coleman was confirmed by the Senate as U.S. Representative to the United Nations for UN Management and Reform on December 16, 2014 and sworn in to her post on December 19, 2014. Ambassador Coleman brought strong management and reform experience to her position, having spent nearly a decade as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. As a McKinsey partner, she worked with a wide range of Fortune 100 companies on strategy, risk management and business restructuring. She also worked in a pro-bono capacity with public institutions such as the New York City Department of Education. Over the past twenty years, she has served on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations. Prior to joining the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Coleman was a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York, where she directed CFR’s Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy program. Her research and writing focused on the political economy of the Middle East, democratization, civil society, economic development, educational reform, and gender issues. She is the author and co-author of numerous books and articles. In 2011, Newsweek named her one of the “150 Women Who Shake the World.” A Marshall scholar, she holds a BA in public policy and East Asian studies from Princeton University and MPhil and DPhil degrees in international relations from Oxford University. A longtime resident of the New York area, Ambassador Coleman is married with five children.

Follow Dr. Coleman on Twitter @Isobel_Coleman.