Foreign Policy In Focus

Emira Woods

Emira Woods is co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, and an expert on U.S. foreign policy with a special emphasis on Africa and the developing world. She has written on a range of issues from debt, trade and development to US military policy. Emira serves on the Board of Directors of Africa Action, Just Associates, Global Justice and the Financial Policy Forum. She is also on the Network Council of Jubilee USA.

Emira completed her undergraduate studies at Columbia University and her graduate studies at Harvard. Prior to joining IPS, she was program manager for the Committee on Development Policy and Practice at InterAction, serving as a principal staff contact for advocacy at the UN, the international financial institutions, USAID and Treasury. Previous to that, she served as a program officer of Oxfam America's Africa program.

In 2007, Emira testified before Congress on international debt at hearings of the House Financial Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.

Emira is a regular commentator on NPR’s News and Notes. She is a frequent guest on broadcast media including BBC, CNN, VOA, CBC, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, the Diane Rehm Show, the Kojo Nnamdi Show and Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on issues related to U.S. foreign policy. She has hosted a WashingtonPost.com online chat and has published articles and op-eds in the NAACP’s Crisis magazine as well as the Miami Herald, the Christian Science Monitor, New York Newsday, The Nation, the Baltimore Sun, and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

 

Recent Work