(Washington, D.C., August 29, 2022): Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) is pleased to announce the expansion of DAWN's Board with the election of human rights organizational and development leader Michele Alexander.
"We are proud to welcome our newest board member Michele Alexander to the DAWN team," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN. "Michele Alexander brings to the Board decades of unparalleled success and experience in development and nonprofit strategy and management. She will help fortify the foundation of our organization and steer our future growth."
Michele Alexander previously served as Human Rights Watch's deputy executive director for development and global initiatives, where she oversaw the organization's outreach, strategic development, fundraising, and marketing initiatives from 1996 through 2021. Michele established the Human Rights Watch Council in 1998, organizing city committees for the organization with 1,300 members in 30 cities around the world. Under her leadership, Human Rights Watch dramatically grew its annual budget to become one of the world's leading human rights organizations, with fundraising operations in 36 cities globally.
Previously, Michele, who is a lawyer by training, served as vice president for corporate support at CARE USA, where she also conducted development and program missions in Haiti, Pakistan, and Ecuador. While at CARE, she worked on contract for the United States Agency for International Development in Pakistan. She was also a training consultant for the Anti-Defamation League, where she worked with universities and corporations on diversity recruitment and management issues.
Michele is a volunteer to several community organizations and regularly provides pro bono fundraising counsel, including as former member of the North Shore Schools Foundation, a non-profit raising money and conducting advocacy campaigns in support of the local public school district.
"The DAWN team has already established itself as a prominent voice in the field of human rights and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa regions," Alexander said. "I hope to lend my expertise to enhance its development efforts and advise the organization on its strategy and future direction."
Jamal Khashoggi helped found DAWN in 2018. The organization was relaunched in September 2020 under the leadership of its new Executive Director, Sarah Leah Whitson. DAWN's other board members include two of the founders of the organization, Nihad Awad and Dr. Esam Omeish, Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman, law professor Sahar Aziz, expert international human rights lawyer Reed Brody, and CEO and founder of Memria, Louis Bickford.
DAWN is a nonprofit organization that promotes democracy, the rule of law, and human rights for all of the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa and advocates for U.S. policies that align with these goals.
