29th Annual Wallenberg Lecture: Jill Savitt, President and CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights

Speakers

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  Jill Savitt

  President & CEO, National Center for Civil and Human Rights

  Bio
  

  Jill Savitt

  President & CEO, National Center for Civil and Human Rights

  Jill Savitt, the President and CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, is a human rights advocate with expertise in genocide and atrocity prevention. She assumed the role in March 2019, but has been involved with The Center since 2010 when she curated the Center’s exhibit on global human rights.

  Previously, Savitt was the Acting Director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. The Center stimulates global action to prevent genocide and to catalyze an international response when it occurs.

  In 2007, Savitt founded and directed Dream for Darfur, a high-profile advocacy campaign that pressed the Chinese government to take specific actions regarding the genocide in Darfur in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Games. The New York Times Magazine profiled Savitt and the initiative.

  Savitt was the Director of Campaigns at Human Rights First from 2001 to 2007, where her team ran the campaign to assist a group of retired military leaders to speak out against torture. The campaign also worked with Hollywood to present a more accurate portrayal of interrogation in movies and TV shows.

  She began her career as a reporter for WAMU, the NPR affiliate in Washington, DC. Savitt graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.