event

Launch of Women LEAD: Women Leading Effective and Accountable Democracy in the Digital Age

Mon. July 8th, 20242:30 PM - 4:00 PM (EDT)
Washington, DC
Register to attend

On the margins of the seventy-fifth NATO summit, please join the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the National Democratic Institute for an event marking the launch of Women Leading Effective and Accountable Democracy in the Digital Age (Women LEAD), a new initiative from the Biden-Harris administration focused on advancing women’s political participation globally and addressing barriers to women’s leadership, both online and offline. 

This event will convene senior officials from the White House, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development with government and philanthropic partners, civil society experts, and women leaders to discuss the critical link between women’s leadership and peace and security, and highlight shared efforts to advance women’s civic and political leadership globally through Women LEAD. 

The event will be followed by a light reception. 

Political ReformDemocracy
event speakers

Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar

President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar is the tenth president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A former justice of the Supreme Court of California, he has served three U.S. presidential administrations at the White House and in federal agencies, and was the Stanley Morrison Professor at Stanford University, where he held appointments in law, political science, and international affairs and led the university’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

Harriet (Hattie) Babbitt

Vice Chair of the Board, National Democratic Institute

Harriet (Hattie) Babbitt serves as vice chair of the National Democratic Institute, board member of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, and vice chair-emerita of the World Resources Institute. She also served as ambassador and U.S. permanent representative to the Organization of American States from 1993-1997, and as deputy administrator of USAID from 1997-2001.

Jennifer Klein

Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Gender Policy Council

Jennifer Klein is assistant to the President and director of the White House Gender Policy Council, which she has led since President Biden first established the Gender Policy Council in March 2021. Klein has worked on domestic and global gender policy throughout her career and has advised the President on issues including reproductive rights, gender-based violence, and women’s economic security.

Francina Armengol

President of the Spanish Congress of Deputies

Francina Armengol is a Spanish politician from the Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands. She has served as president and member of the Congress of Deputies since 2023.

Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta

Ambassador-at-Large for the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues at the U.S. Department of State

Ambassador Geeta Rao Gupta is the fourth ambassador-at-large for the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State and the first woman of color to hold the position. She previously served as senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation and senior advisor to Co-impact, a global collaborative philanthropy for systems change.

Sandra Pepera

Director for Gender, Women and Democracy, National Democratic Institute

Sandra Pepera is the director for gender, women and democracy at the National Democratic Institute. Prior to joining NDI, she was a senior officer at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) leading programs in the Caribbean, Rwanda-Burundi and Sudan; a lecturer at the University of Ghana; and a political analyst in the Political Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Jamille Bigio

Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality at the U.S. Agency for International Development

Jamille Bigio serves as the senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment in the Office of the Administrator. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Bigio served as a senior fellow on Women and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she researched, lectured, and published widely on the relationship between gender equality, national security, and global prosperity.


Suyen Barahona

Executive Director of the Women's Political Leadership Fund

Suyen is the executive director of the Women’s Political Leadership Fund, a new independent fund designed to bring critical funding to advance women’s feminist and democratic political leadership, with a particular focus on the global south. She is a political leader, human rights activist and feminist with over 15 years of leadership experience in politics.

Saskia Brechenmacher

Senior Fellow, Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program

Saskia Brechenmacher is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge and a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, where her research focuses on gender, civil society, and democratic governance.

Irene Mwendwa

Executive Director of Pollicy

Irene Mwendwa is the executive director at Pollicy, a feminist collective of technologists, data scientists, creatives, and academics working at the intersection of data, design, and technology to craft better life experiences by harnessing improved data. She is a legal professional with extensive experience in innovative collaborations and executing projects that deliver better policies and legal frameworks on public policy issues such as elections, data and technology.