Ambassador Elizabeth M. Cousens

Ambassador Elizabeth M. Cousens was sworn in on April 2, 2012 as U.S. Representative on the UN Economic and Social Council and Alternate Representative to the UN General Assembly. Ambassador Cousens has led a distinguished career in international public service. She previously served as Principal Policy Advisor and Counselor to the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, Susan Rice. She also served as Sherpa to Ambassador Rice for the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability.

Prior to joining USUN, Ambassador Cousens was Director of Strategy for The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre). Earlier, she served with UN political missions in Nepal and the Middle East and worked extensively on peacebuilding and development issues in conflict zones. Ambassador Cousens was previously Vice President of the International Peace Institute, where she led initiatives on emerging global issues and UN reform, and Director of the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum, a research group that provides country and regional expertise to the United Nations on crisis situations. Dr. Cousens has a D.Phil. in international relations from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a B.A. in history from the University of Puget Sound.

She and her husband, Bruce Jones, have one child.