IGP Welcomes Gender Policy Experts Jennifer Klein and Rachel Vogelstein to the Faculty

Columbia SIPA and the Institute of Global Politics are excited to announce that Jennifer Klein and Rachel Vogelstein will be joining the faculty this spring and assuming leadership roles.

Jennifer Klein will join SIPA as a professor of professional practice beginning on July 1. From January through June she will serve as an adjunct senior research scholar and begin teaching in the fall. Klein will also lead IGP’s Women’s Initiative, developing evidence-based strategies to advance gender equality in the United States and around the world.

Most recently, Klein was assistant to the president and director of the White House Gender Policy Council, which she led since outgoing President Biden established the first-ever Gender Policy Council in March 2021.

Klein has worked on domestic and global gender policy throughout her career and has advised the president on issues including health and reproductive rights, gender-based violence, women’s economic security, and human rights. During the Obama-Biden administration, Klein served as a deputy and senior advisor in the Office of Global Women’s Issues at the Department of State. During the Clinton-Gore Administration, she worked at the White House in a dual appointment as First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s senior domestic policy advisor and a special assistant to the president on the Domestic Policy Council.

A graduate of Columbia Law School, Klein began her career at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. She has taught domestic and global gender policy at the Georgetown University Law Center, as a senior visiting fellow in international and public affairs at the Watson Institute at Brown University, and as a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Legal Challenges at Yale Law School. She has served on a number of non-profit boards, including the Brown University Women’s Leadership Council, International Center for Research on Women, and Global Institute for Women’s Leadership Advisory Council at King’s College London.

“What a tremendous opportunity to be joining SIPA’s amazing roster of talented faculty, and to be reconnected with Secretary Clinton,” said Klein. “I look forward to bringing my experience leading the first White House policy council focused on gender equality and women’s issues into the classroom.”

Rachel Vogelstein joins SIPA as associate professor of professional practice, effective January 20. She will lead the IGP Women’s Initiative, along with Klein, and also SIPA’s Human Rights, Gender, and Equity concentration, along with Yasmine Ergas, SIPA senior lecturer in the discipline of international and public affairs. She will teach courses starting in the fall.

Vogelstein is an expert on domestic and global policy to advance gender equality. Most recently, she served in the Biden Administration as deputy director and special assistant to the president at the White House Gender Policy Council and special advisor on gender at the White House National Security Council, leading efforts on health and reproductive rights, economic security, democracy and political participation, gender-based violence, and education and humanitarian relief, among other issues. She is the author of Awakening: #MeToo and the Global Fight for Women’s Rights. During the Obama administration, Vogelstein served on the White House Council on Women and Girls and as an official in the secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the US State Department. Previously, she was the Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow and Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“I am looking forward to educating the next generation of policy leaders and changemakers and developing innovative solutions to advance gender equality in the US and globally,” said Vogelstein.

A graduate of Columbia’s Barnard College and Georgetown University Law Center, Vogelstein has worked on women’s health at the National Women’s Law Center and ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, and taught classes on domestic and global gender policy at Georgetown Law and Yale Law School. She has served on the boards of the National Women’s History Museum and Planned Parenthood Global.

“Our students will benefit immensely from the wealth of policy experience and expertise Rachel and Jennifer bring on women’s rights and gender policy,” said Keren Yarhi-Milo, dean of SIPA. “Their leadership and expertise will enhance SIPA and IGP’s education and impact on gender-related issues here in the US and globally.”

Media contact: Lionel Beehner, senior editorial director: [email protected]