Karen Donfried

Dr. Karen Donfried currently serves as President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). Before assuming this position in April 2014, Donfried was the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council. Prior to that, she served as the National Intelligence Officer for Europe on the National Intelligence Council. She first joined GMF in 2001 after having served for ten years as a European specialist at the Congressional Research Service. When she was at GMF from 2005 to 2010, she first served as senior director of policy programs and then as executive vice president. From 2003-2005, she worked in the Policy Planning office at the U.S. Department of State, handling the Europe portfolio. Donfried has written and spoken extensively on German foreign policy, European integration, and transatlantic relations. She is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for European Studies. The King of the Belgians awarded the Commander of the Order of the Crown to her in 2020 and she became an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2018. Additionally, she received the Cross of the Order of Merit from the German Government in 2011 and a Superior Service Medal from the National Intelligence Community in 2014. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Council on Germany. Donfried has a Ph.D. and MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a Magister from the University of Munich, Germany and holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University. She is fluent in German.