WASHINGTON—Freedom House is pleased to welcome Dr. Sharon S. Nazarian to the Board of Trustees. Dr. Nazarian is president of the Y&S Nazarian Family Foundation and member of Nazarian Enterprises, a family investment office with holdings across a broad spectrum of industries. Previously, she served as senior vice president of international affairs for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), where she helped build a global platform to provide educational, research and advocacy tools in support of ADL’s work fighting antisemitism and racial hatred around the globe, including in Europe, Latin America, Israel and the Middle East, and Africa.
“Sharon's deep commitment to human rights and the promotion of democratic values make her an invaluable addition to the Board of Trustees,” said Jane Harman, Board chair and former US congresswoman. “I look forward to benefiting from her counsel and insights as we seek to fulfill the promise of Freedom House’s mission to expand and defend freedom globally.”
Dr. Nazarian is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) and now serves on the national board of directors of ADL. Her dedication to higher education is evident through her position as the Chair of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies Advisory Board and the Board of Governors of University of Haifa.
Founded in 1941 on the core conviction that all people should be free, Freedom House marshalled support among policymakers and a broadly isolationist American public to engage in the fight against Nazi Germany and the fascist threat to American security and values. In the decades since, and with strategic guidance from the Board of Trustees, the organization has worked diligently in pursuit of its mission to expand and defend freedom globally. Through its advocacy, programs, and research, Freedom House informs the world about emerging threats to freedom; mobilizes decision makers to respond to those threats; and directly supports democratic change agents around the world.
The Board of Freedom House is proud to have included many prominent members since Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie spearheaded its founding on the core conviction that all people should be free. These include civil rights attorney Charles Morgan, Jr.; pioneering Black labor leader and civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph; civil and human rights activist Bayard Rustin; diplomat and negotiator Sol Linowitz; Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan; lawyer and public servant William H. Taft IV; union leader Daniel J. Tobin; investor and author Peter Ackerman; Saturday Review editor Norman Cousins; National Public Radio (NPR) political correspondent Mara Liasson; author Bette Bao Lord, who received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights in 1998; author and political satirist PJ O’Rourke; famed detective novelist Rex Stout; anti-Nazi journalist Dorothy Thompson; and
foreign policy scholar Paul Seabury.
You can find a full list of all Freedom House Trustees here.
