"Past, Present and Future In the White House and beyond"
by KRISTIN DAVIS
Photo by Scott Robinson
Alex Arriaga is a founder and managing partner at Strategy for Humanity. She has served in leadership positions at the White House, in the U.S. Congress, and at major non-profit organizations. She has vast expertise on global human rights and humanitarian issues with specialized knowledge on matters affecting women, persons with disabilities, ethnic and religious minorities, and education. She has a proven record setting organizational priorities, creating broad coalitions, building grassroots movements, collaborating with influential leaders, and achieving fundraising goals. She has drafted strategies to advance policy and legislation, convened major conferences on many topics, and brought together diverse ideological groups on a common agenda and breadth of issues.
For each client, Alex creates and implements a customized path to success. She helps define their niche and chart their work forward to accomplish the desired "win." She draws on her vast experience crafting strategies to achieve goals on global issues; providing political analysis and legislative mapping; building highly effective and diverse coalitions; creating campaigns for high profile awareness; presenting at congressional hearings, international forums, and public events.
Alex's leadership was featured in “A 'Pragmatic Idealist' Pursues Justice for All” (The Washington Post). During her tenure as head of government relations, policy and advocacy at Amnesty International USA, The Hill recognized AIUSA as a top human rights lobby in Washington. She spearheaded major human rights campaigns and cutting-edge programs, and engaged with hundreds of volunteers and thousands of members.
Earlier in her career Alex served in leadership capacities at the White House, as Special Assistant to the President and chief of staff to the President’s Special Envoy for the America. This followed her political appointed as senior adviser to the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State and as executive director of the Secretary of State's first Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad. While at the Department of State she was U.S. Delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (twice), served on the Department’s Bosnia Task Force, and spearheaded bureau initiatives to defend rights of women, elevate issues of religious freedom, support democratic movements.
Alex began her career in the U.S. House of Representatives as director of the bipartisan Congressional Human Rights Caucus, where she increased participation across party lines to involve a majority of the U.S. Congress, and expanded the scope of the human rights agenda to shed light on conditions in over 100 countries, focusing attention on myriad topics such as ethnic and cultural genocide, human trafficking, religious and ethnic persecution, violence against women and girls, corporate responsibility, and rights of persons with disabilities.
At the local level, Alex is active on education and disability issues. She participates in a task force to address college sexual assault, advising on creating inclusive approaches, and collaborating to create a model curriculum that will be piloted at universities across the country. Alex co-authored an award winning Special Education Family Research and Information Binder and co-edited the translation into Spanish; school district officials have adopted the binder as a standard resource that continues to be distributed to families with children with disabilities in the immediate school district and beyond. Her work to support children with autism was showcased in “More Autism Training for Teachers” (The Washington Post). These and other efforts, led to Alex's public recognition by the Arlington (Virginia) School Board for her extraordinary and multi-year contributions to improve the education experience and inclusive opportunities for students with disabilities.
Alex has received several awards for her leadership and commitment to public service, including the U.S. Department of State's Superior Honor Award, the University of Virginia's Distinguished Alumna Award, the Minority Business & Professional Network award for outstanding leadership, service and achievements. and Arlington (Virginia) School Board's Honored Citizen Award. Alex serves on the board of directors of a variety of educational and human rights organizations. She has published articles and is an experienced spokesperson in English and Spanish. A graduate of the University of Virginia and former scholarship recipient with the Joffrey School of Ballet, Alex is first generation American of Spanish and Chilean descent.
With Strategy for Humanity, Alex's clients have included Elevate Children Funders Group, CARE International, Futures Without Violence, International Development Law Organization, Amnesty International USA, American Jewish World Service, Freedom House, Human Rights First, Georgetown's Institute for Women, Peace and Security, Global Women's Institute at George Washington University, International Center for Research on Women, Save the Children, Thriive, Women Thrive Worldwide, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Communications Consortium Media Center.
For each client, Alex creates and implements a customized path to success. She helps define their niche and chart their work forward to accomplish the desired "win." She draws on her vast experience crafting strategies to achieve goals on global issues; providing political analysis and legislative mapping; building highly effective and diverse coalitions; creating campaigns for high profile awareness; presenting at congressional hearings, international forums, and public events.
Alex's leadership was featured in “A 'Pragmatic Idealist' Pursues Justice for All” (The Washington Post). During her tenure as head of government relations, policy and advocacy at Amnesty International USA, The Hill recognized AIUSA as a top human rights lobby in Washington. She spearheaded major human rights campaigns and cutting-edge programs, and engaged with hundreds of volunteers and thousands of members.
Earlier in her career Alex served in leadership capacities at the White House, as Special Assistant to the President and chief of staff to the President’s Special Envoy for the America. This followed her political appointed as senior adviser to the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State and as executive director of the Secretary of State's first Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad. While at the Department of State she was U.S. Delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (twice), served on the Department’s Bosnia Task Force, and spearheaded bureau initiatives to defend rights of women, elevate issues of religious freedom, support democratic movements.
Alex began her career in the U.S. House of Representatives as director of the bipartisan Congressional Human Rights Caucus, where she increased participation across party lines to involve a majority of the U.S. Congress, and expanded the scope of the human rights agenda to shed light on conditions in over 100 countries, focusing attention on myriad topics such as ethnic and cultural genocide, human trafficking, religious and ethnic persecution, violence against women and girls, corporate responsibility, and rights of persons with disabilities.
At the local level, Alex is active on education and disability issues. She participates in a task force to address college sexual assault, advising on creating inclusive approaches, and collaborating to create a model curriculum that will be piloted at universities across the country. Alex co-authored an award winning Special Education Family Research and Information Binder and co-edited the translation into Spanish; school district officials have adopted the binder as a standard resource that continues to be distributed to families with children with disabilities in the immediate school district and beyond. Her work to support children with autism was showcased in “More Autism Training for Teachers” (The Washington Post). These and other efforts, led to Alex's public recognition by the Arlington (Virginia) School Board for her extraordinary and multi-year contributions to improve the education experience and inclusive opportunities for students with disabilities.
Alex has received several awards for her leadership and commitment to public service, including the U.S. Department of State's Superior Honor Award, the University of Virginia's Distinguished Alumna Award, the Minority Business & Professional Network award for outstanding leadership, service and achievements. and Arlington (Virginia) School Board's Honored Citizen Award. Alex serves on the board of directors of a variety of educational and human rights organizations. She has published articles and is an experienced spokesperson in English and Spanish. A graduate of the University of Virginia and former scholarship recipient with the Joffrey School of Ballet, Alex is first generation American of Spanish and Chilean descent.
With Strategy for Humanity, Alex's clients have included Elevate Children Funders Group, CARE International, Futures Without Violence, International Development Law Organization, Amnesty International USA, American Jewish World Service, Freedom House, Human Rights First, Georgetown's Institute for Women, Peace and Security, Global Women's Institute at George Washington University, International Center for Research on Women, Save the Children, Thriive, Women Thrive Worldwide, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Communications Consortium Media Center.
