Our Team

Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia SIPA; 67th Secretary of State and Former Senator from New York; IGP Faculty Advisory Board Chair

Hillary Rodham Clinton has spent five decades in public service as an advocate, attorney, First Lady, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of State, and presidential candidate. Clinton was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 26, 1947.  After graduating from Wellesley College and Yale Law School, she began her life-long work on behalf of children and families by joining the Children’s Defense Fund. In 1974, she moved to Arkansas, where she married Bill Clinton and became a successful attorney while also raising their daughter, Chelsea.  During her 12 years as First Lady of Arkansas, she was Chairwoman of the Arkansas Education Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital, and the Children's Defense Fund.

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Dean, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs; Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Relations; IGP Faculty Advisory Board Member

An expert in international security, crisis decision-making, and political psychology, Dean Yarhi-Milo is also an award-winning scholar with an extensive record of leadership and service at SIPA and Columbia, where she holds a professorship of political science and public and international affairs.

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Professor of International and Public Affairs and IGP Faculty Policy Director, Columbia SIPA; 76th Secretary of the Treasury and Former Ambassador to Israel

Jack Lew returned to SIPA after serving as United States Ambassador to Israel in the Biden Administration.  Previously, he served as the 76th Secretary of the Treasury and White House Chief of Staff in the Obama Administration.  Under President Obama, he served as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a position he also held in President Clinton's cabinet when the U.S. budget operated at a surplus for three consecutive years. Lew started his White House service in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to the President.  In that position, he played a lead role in designing Americorps, the national service program, and worked on health care reform with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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Special Assistant to Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and Associate Director

Lauren Hoffman is the special assistant to Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and associate director of the Institute of Global Politics at Columbia SIPA, where she helps advance policy research and programming with a focus on the Women’s Initiative. She is also an adjunct assistant professor of international and public affairs at SIPA. Prior to Columbia, Hoffman was the associate director of the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress, focusing on women’s economic security. Hoffman’s work has been cited by The New York Times, BBC, the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform, Deloitte, The Urban Institute, amicus briefs, and law review articles. Her commentary has been featured in CNBC, Business Insider, Ms. Magazine, The Daily Beast, and MarketWatch. Hoffman has also worked at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, TIME’S UP, the National Women’s Law Center, the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, and with the Women and Foreign Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations. She started her career as a legal analyst at Goldman Sachs. Hoffman graduated with a JD from American University Washington College of Law and a BA from Yale University in Political Science and French.

Associate Director of Policy

Sutton most recently served as director for Israel and Palestinian Affairs at the National Security Council, helping shape U.S. policy in the Middle East. She was directly involved in the negotiations to secure the release of Israeli hostages, the ceasefire in Gaza in January 2025, and the shuttle diplomacy and ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024. Sutton previously served at the Department of Defense as Country Director for the Levant, coordinating regional defense priorities, as the Chief of Staff to Tom Nides, former Ambassador to Israel, and as lead political negotiator for the Middle East at the United States Mission to the United Nations from 2017-2021. Sutton also helped to spearhead efforts to combat anti-Israel bias at the UN under Ambassador Nikki Haley. Sutton graduated with an MA from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and a BA from Georgetown University.

Assistant Director

Assistant Director of Communications

Freid previously served as an account executive at a PR firm in Tallahassee, Florida, working with a roster of clients that included nonprofits, statewide associations, government agencies, and universities. He has held roles in city and county government, including leading a municipal rebrand as the City of New Port Richey’s first-ever marketing specialist, and served as digital marketing manager for the Bon Appétit Group. Freid graduated with a BS in English and Marketing from Florida State University.