Swanee Hunt

Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy
HKS Adjunct Faculty
Office Address
Non Resident
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox 124
79 JFK Street
Contact
Phone: 617-520-2266
Email: swanee_hunt@Harvard.Edu
Swanee Hunt

Profile

Swanee Hunt, Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy, was the Founding Director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School. She is currently core faculty at the Center for Public Leadership and an advisor to the Working Group on Modern Day Slavery at the Carr Center for Human Rights. She has taught The Choreography of Social Movements at Harvard College and lectured at Harvards business, law, divinity, and education graduate schools.

An expert on domestic policy and foreign affairs, Hunt is president of the 27 year-old Hunt Alternatives Fund. The Fund operates out of Cambridge, Massachusetts and is focused on strengthening youth arts organizations, supporting leaders of social movements, combating human trafficking, and increasing philanthropy.

Hunt also chairs the Washington-based Institute for Inclusive Security, conducting research, training, and advocacy to integrate women into peace processes. Her seminal work in this area began when, as the U.S. Ambassador to Austria from 1993 to 1997, she hosted negotiations and international symposia focused on stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states and on the encouragement of women leaders throughout Eastern Europe. Building on her extensive work with US non-governmental organizations, she became a specialist in the role of women in post-communist Europe.

Raised in Dallas, Texas, Hunt made her initial mark as a civic leader and philanthropist in her adopted city of Denver, where for two decades she led community efforts on social justice issues such as public education, child welfare, affordable housing, womens empowerment, and mental health reform for two mayors and the governor of Colorado.

Hunt is a specialist on women in politics, having conducted research, training, and consultations with women leaders in some 60 countries. Domestically, she is active in Democratic politics, focusing on increasing diverse representation and convening supporters, political leaders, and candidates. During Bill Clintons 1992 presidential campaign, she co-organized Serious Women, Serious Issues, Serious Money a Denver symposium widely considered the first time such diverse women gathered to provide major financial backing for a national political campaign. In addition to extensive fundraising events for candidates, most recently she convened Unconventional Women, a six-hour program featuring more than 20 female political leaders for an audience of 3000 in Denver, concurrent with the Democratic National Convention. She then created (with Katherine Archuleta) Womens Voting Circles, engaging more than 1200 activists to bring 10,000 of the least likely to vote women to the polls for President Obama.

Swanee Hunt is a widely published researcher and columnist; she has provided news commentary and analysis on international and domestic television networks, including CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and CBS Evening News. She has also authored two books: the award-winning This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace and a memoir, Half-Life of a Zealot. Her most recent manuscript, Worlds Apart: the Bosnian Case in Pursuit of Global Security, is in publication.

Hunt is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of Crisis Group. She has a BA in philosophy, two masters degrees (in psychology and religion), and a doctorate in theology. In addition to myriad awards, in 2007 she was inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame. Her photographs have been exhibited in more than a dozen one-woman shows in five countries; her musical composition, for five soloists and chorus, has been performed in six cities; and she has raised a herd of 76 bison. 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.

Courses

January

Media Expertise

Swanee Hunt welcomes media inquiries on the following subjects:

Additional experts may be found by clicking on each subject listed. You may contact faculty directly or if you need assistance contact the Communications Office at 617-495-1115.