Michelle Parker
Senior Policy Advisor, Center for Digital Development, USAID

Sessions: USAID Digital Strategy (Day 2 Afternoon)

​Michelle Parker is a career Foreign Service Officer with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), currently serving as Senior Policy Advisor in the Center for Digital Development, managing the implementation of USAID’s first ever Digital Strategy. Ms. Parker’s technical expertise is in Crisis and Stabilization, where she specializes in advancing democracy, human rights, and governance in conflict and closing political space environments. She has also worked extensively in donor coordination as the Senior Development Advisor to the Commanding General of NATO/ISAF in Afghanistan, and as the Senior Development Counselor in US Embassy Tokyo. Her USAID career includes tours in Nicaragua, Japan, El Salvador, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nepal. She worked with various organizations in China, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine prior to joining the Foreign Service.  Ms. Parker is a Council on Foreign Relations Term member and former International Affairs Fellow based in the RAND Corporation, where she published extensively on the role of development in security challenged environments and civil military coordination. She has an MS in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University, and a BA in Political Science from Georgia State University.  She is married, and has a 5-year old son.

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