Fatema Sumar

Member, Blumont Board of Directors

Fatema Z. Sumar is Executive Director of the Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University. Housed at the Harvard Kennedy School, CID works across Harvard University and a global network of researchers and practitioners to build, convene, and deploy talent to build a thriving world for all.

Ms. Sumar has a distinguished career as a practitioner in the US government and civil society. She served as a presidential appointee in the Biden-Harris administration as the Vice President of Compact Operations at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). She was previously MCC’s Deputy Vice President for Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America. Ms. Sumar also served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia at the US Department of State and worked on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the broader region. In civil society, Ms. Sumar was the Vice President of Global Programs at Oxfam America where she oversaw regional development and humanitarian response to fight the injustice of poverty. She is the author of The Development Diplomat: Working Across Borders, Boardrooms, and Bureaucracies to End Poverty.

Ms. Sumar holds a Master's in Public Administration from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs where she received the prestigious Stokes Award, and a Bachelor’s in government from Cornell University.