President Joe Biden has appointed Eileen Donahoe, most recently executive director of the Global Digital Policy Incubator at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, as special envoy and coordinator for digital freedom within the State Department’s bureau of cyberspace and digital policy.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement published Monday Donahoe’s foreign policy experience and technical knowledge will help advance the country’s priorities related to digital inclusion, online freedoms and information integrity.
Donahoe’s appointment “reinforces the importance of digital freedom and values-based technology governance work as Administration and Department priorities,” added Blinken, a previous Wash100 awardee.
The newly appointed special envoy spent over two years as director of global affairs at Human Rights Watch and was the first U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Donahoe served as a visiting scholar and affiliate at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and as a technology litigation associate at law firm Fenwick & West.
