Ambassador Verveer was previously nominated by President Obama to serve as the first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues and as the U.S. Representative to the UN Commission on the Status of Women. From 2000-2008, she was the chair and co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international NGO that she co-founded to invest in emerging women leaders. During the Clinton administration, she served as assistant to the president and chief of staff to the first lady. She also led the effort to establish the president’s Interagency Council on Women, and was instrumental in the adoption of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. She is the co-author of Fast Forward: How Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose.

Ambassador Verveer has a B.S. and M.S. from Georgetown University and holds several honorary degrees. In 2013, she was the Humanitas Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge and in 2017, she was selected to deliver the Tanner Lecture at Clare Hall College, Cambridge, where she is a University Fellow.

She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she has served on the Boards of the National Endowment for Democracy, the Atlantic Council, as well as the World Bank Advisory Council on Gender and Development. She has also served as the Special Representative on Gender Issues for the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Secretary of State’s Award for Distinguished Service, Georgetown’s Timothy Healy, S.J. Award for Distinguished Public Service, and The Washingtonian's “500 Most Influential People Shaping Policy” list. She was awarded the Order of Princess Olga by the Government of Ukraine and the Order of the Rising Sun by the Government of Japan.