Susannah Friedman, Board Member

Susannah Friedman is a humanitarian professional with two decades of experience across programs, operations, strategy, and policy. Most recently,  Susannah led the UN Refugee Agency's Strategic Planning and Analysis Unit, where she established new approaches to global level strategic planning and instituted the use of foresight to support data-driven planning and decision-making. Prior to her work with UNHCR, she led CARE’s Humanitarian Programming and Policy work, including at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Susannah has led humanitarian responses across Asia and East Africa, including with CARE as Regional Emergency Coordinator for the Asia/Pacific region and Emergency Coordinator in Sudan, and as Save the Children’s Emergency Director for Somalia. For six years, Susannah was an adjunct faculty member of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she served as the Associate Director of the Humanitarian Affairs study track and taught graduate courses on humanitarian action. She started her career in international affairs as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, where she was a Water and Sanitation Volunteer.

Susannah holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Michigan. She lives in upstate New York with her husband and two daughters.