The United States Senate has confirmed Indian American Geeta Rao Gupta’s appointment as the Ambassador at Large for Global Women's Issues in the State Department with a majority vote of 51 to 47 on May 10, 2023. She was nominated to the post by President Joe Biden in 2021.
In the new role, Gupta will lead the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI) with a mandate to promote the rights and empowerment of women and girls through U.S. foreign policy.
Confirming the appointment the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues said, “Dr Geeta Rao Gupta was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Ambassador-at-Large for the Office of Global Women’s Issues. The State Department looks forward to her efforts to promote women and girls' rights through U.S. foreign policy.”
Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and former president of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), Dr Gupta founded and served as executive director of the 3D Program for Girls and Women at the UN Foundation.
Previously, she was a visiting scholar at Stanford University and also served at World Bank, UNICEF, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and several boards, including the Global Partnership for Education, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health; and the MAC AIDS Fund.
The recipient of numerous awards, India-born Gupta obtained a PhD in Psychology from Bangalore University and a Master of Philosophy and Master of Arts from the University of Delhi.
