Atul Gawande was Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID from January 2022 to January 2025. He is a renowned surgeon, author, and public health leader. He was previously a practicing general and endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He co-founded and chaired Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation, and Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally. From 2018-2020, he was CEO of Haven, the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase healthcare venture.

In addition, Atul was a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and has written four New York Times best-selling books: Complications, Better, The Checklist Manifesto, and Being Mortal.

Bama Athreya served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Hub and the Inclusive Development Hub in USAID’s Bureau for Inclusive Growth, Partnerships, and Innovation. From 2013 through 2019, she served as USAID’s Senior Specialist for Labor where she developed new programming to address labor rights, counter human trafficking, and promote women’s economic inclusion and was part of a working group to advance USAID’s approach to gender and social inclusion. She has developed and led multi-stakeholder initiatives with global corporations, and has worked and written extensively on labor and gender in U.S. trade policy. 

Jeremy Konyndyk is president of Refugees International. A committed humanitarian advocate and seasoned emergency operator, he has served in senior appointments in two U.S. administrations and in a range of U.S. and overseas NGO leadership positions. From 2013–2017, Jeremy served in the Obama administration as the director of USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), where he led the U.S. government’s response to international disasters.

Chris Milligan served as the Counselor to the United States Agency for International Development (the most senior career position) under the first Trump Administration.  A former member of the Senior Foreign Service, served as the Senior Development Advisor for the first Quadrennial Diplomatic and Development Review (QDDR), and the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in USAID’s Bureau of Policy, Planning, and Learning.  

Mr. Milligan also served as the Regional Director for the Near East in the Office of the Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance (F) in the State Department overseeing $7 billion in politically-sensitive assistance. Mr. Milligan has a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, a Master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and is a distinguished graduate of the National War College.