Full Name
Jeremy Konyndyk
Job Title
Executive Director, USAID COVID-19 Task Force
Company (Please input the full name of your organization)
USAID
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Speaker Bio
Jeremy Konyndyk serves as Executive Director of the USAID COVID-19 Task Force and a Senior Advisor to the USAID Administrator. He oversees the development and implementation of USAID’s COVID-19 response efforts, comprising resources approaching $10 billion that support over 100 countries suffering the devastating effects of the virus. He leads the agency’s engagement on COVID-19 with foreign government counterparts, partner organizations, and global response institutions including Gavi/COVAX, the World Health Organization, and the Global Fund. He rejoined USAID in January 2021.
Mr. Konyndyk served in a previous appointment at USAID as the Director of USAID’s Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) from September 2013 – January 2017. As Director of the lead federal office responsible for coordinating the US Government’s response to international disasters, Mr. Konyndyk oversaw OFDA’s global programs and responses to an average of 70 disasters in 50 countries every year. During his tenure there he led the US Government’s humanitarian responses to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Nepal earthquake, the Iraq crisis, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the resurgent conflict in South Sudan, and the ongoing war inside Syria, among other crises.
Mr. Konyndyk also serves on the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the World Health Organization’s Programme on Health Emergencies.
From 2017 to 2021, Mr. Konyndyk was a Senior Policy Fellow at the Center for Global Development where he co-created the COVID-Local initiative to develop a Frontline Guide for use by city and community leaders to organize and fight COVID in their communities. He also led CGD research initiatives on pandemic preparedness, humanitarian effectiveness and reform, and U.S. development policy. Earlier in his career he worked for NGOs including Mercy Corps and the American Refugee Committee, and served as a Refugee Officer at the US State Department.
Mr. Konyndyk holds a Bachelor’s degree from Calvin College and a Master’s from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Konyndyk served in a previous appointment at USAID as the Director of USAID’s Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) from September 2013 – January 2017. As Director of the lead federal office responsible for coordinating the US Government’s response to international disasters, Mr. Konyndyk oversaw OFDA’s global programs and responses to an average of 70 disasters in 50 countries every year. During his tenure there he led the US Government’s humanitarian responses to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Nepal earthquake, the Iraq crisis, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the resurgent conflict in South Sudan, and the ongoing war inside Syria, among other crises.
Mr. Konyndyk also serves on the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the World Health Organization’s Programme on Health Emergencies.
From 2017 to 2021, Mr. Konyndyk was a Senior Policy Fellow at the Center for Global Development where he co-created the COVID-Local initiative to develop a Frontline Guide for use by city and community leaders to organize and fight COVID in their communities. He also led CGD research initiatives on pandemic preparedness, humanitarian effectiveness and reform, and U.S. development policy. Earlier in his career he worked for NGOs including Mercy Corps and the American Refugee Committee, and served as a Refugee Officer at the US State Department.
Mr. Konyndyk holds a Bachelor’s degree from Calvin College and a Master’s from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Twitter Handle
@jeremykonyndyk
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