Sarah Holewinski

Sarah Holewinski was senior advisor in The Joint Staff to the Chairman’s Advisory Group and the Transregional Threats Coordination Cell. She was deputy chief of staff for policy at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations under Ambassador Samantha Power. For nearly a decade prior, Sarah was executive director of Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), leading efforts to advise warring parties on civilian protection and responsible use of force. In that role, she worked extensively with the U.S. military and its allies and in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, CAR, Burma, and elsewhere. Sarah helped author U.S. doctrine on civilian harm mitigation, advised NATO on addressing civilian harm in Afghanistan and on civilian casualty prevention for Operation Unified Protector in Libya, advised the African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), and created trainings on civilian protection for the United States, NATO, AMISOM, ANSF, and Burmese forces.

Sarah was named in Top 100 Most Influential People in Armed Violence Reduction by Action on Armed Violence and received the Truman National Security Project’s award for Extraordinary Impact. She was a member of the (Bill) Clinton Administration’s White House AIDS Policy team, a senior associate at West Wing Writers, and consulted for Human Rights Watch, Ford Foundation, the William J. Clinton Foundation, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Sarah holds degrees from Georgetown and Columbia Universities, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a senior fellow at New America, and a professor of practice at Arizona State University.