Gillian Sorensen is Senior Adviser and national advocate at the United Nations Foundation. She has had a long career working with and for the UN. Since l993, she served as Special Adviser for Public Policy for Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, then as Assistant Secretary General, head of the Office of External Relations for Secretary General Kofi Annan. She was responsible for outreach to civil society including NGO’s and worked closely with diplomats, academics, parliamentarians, religious leaders and others committed to peace, justice, development and human rights. She is an experienced public speaker and often represented the World Organization in this country and abroad.

Ms. Sorensen earlier served for over 12 years as New York City Commissioner for the United Nations, head of the City’s liaison office with the world’s largest diplomatic community, on appointment by Mayor Edward I. Koch. Her responsibilities related to diplomatic security and immunity, housing and education, and other cultural and business contacts between the Host City and over 30,000 diplomats.

Gillian Sorensen is a graduate of Smith College and studied at the Sorbonne. She has been a Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government (Institute of Politics) at Harvard University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Women’s Foreign Policy Group.