Minh-Thu Pham

Biography

Minh-Thu Pham is Executive Director of Global Policy at the United Nations Foundation, where she develops and leads strategic initiatives to strengthen the UN’s ability to solve global problems. She frequently brings together governments, civil society and thought leaders to help reach global agreements and push them toward bolder aims. Over the last few years, she has led UNF’s effort to support the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She recently taught international policymaking at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School and has almost 20 years of experience in foreign policy, international diplomacy, global development, and fieldwork.

Minh-Thu served in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General for Kofi Annan in strategic planning and executive capacities, leading initiatives to reform and strengthen the UN and improve relations between the U.S. and the UN. Her past experience also includes working with global leaders and philanthropists to deliver on the Millennium Development Goals, implementing the peace accord in Bosnia and advancing refugee and humanitarian causes in Ethiopia, Vietnam and Washington, DC. She has a background in documentary work and oral histories.

Minh-Thu is 92Y Women inPower fellow and a fellow of the Truman National Security Project. She serves on the Advisory Council of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, a member of the Board of the Coalition for Asian-American Children and Families, and she was selected a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations in 2007. She holds an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and graduated in 1998 with a BA in History from Duke University. She came to the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam and currently lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters.