Director, Richard Haass Center for Education

Director, Richard Haass Center for Education

Council on Foreign Relations

New York City & Washington, DC

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), one of the world’s preeminent voices on foreign policy, international relations, national security, and transnational issues, seeks a strategic, innovative, and collaborative leader as the inaugural Director of the Richard Haass Center for Education (Haass Center). Established in June 2025, the Haass Center was created to honor Richard Haass’s 20 years as CFR’s president and his profound commitment to civic education and global affairs literacy, both of which are critical to understanding and engaging effectively in the public sphere today. As conceived, the Center will centralize and significantly expand the reach of CFR’s educational work, ensuring the creation of best-in-class educational resources that are widely and readily available to educators and learners in secondary and postsecondary classrooms across the country. Importantly, in this fraught political moment, the Center will also equip educators to teach their students about global affairs through civil discourse and respectful dialogue.

Today’s interdependent global economy and geopolitical landscape connect the United States’ interests more than ever to the actions and interests of other countries and their citizens. At the same time, the political system within the U.S. is defined by entrenched polarization. The inaugural Director will provide leadership in establishing three verticals across the Center that leverage the Council’s existing strengths and realize new opportunities : (1) provide leadership on civic education, civil discourse, and global affairs literacy, (2) scale content production for educators and students and help nurture new distribution channels for these resources, and (3) continue to expand national outreach and engagement with educators and educational administrators. Together, these efforts will build on years of important foundational work led by CFR Education, which was an EdTech Awards 2025 Finalist, winner of the Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence 2024 – Back To School, and highlighted in Common Sense Media’s 10 Best Tools for High School and the American Association of School Librarians’ Best Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning.

The Haass Center’s Director will report to CFR President Michael Froman and will be part of a team of approximately 15 staff. To date, the Center has amassed more than $40 million in pledges, with $10 million already invested in the organization’s endowment. The outpouring of philanthropy for the Center is a testament to the CFR community’s enthusiastic support for the broad mission of education and provides a solid financial foundation upon which to build the new Center.

The inaugural Director will leverage the decade of success achieved by CFR Education and the horsepower of CFR’s first-rate thought leadership to broaden and deepen the Council’s leadership within foreign affairs-focused civic education. The Center has a multi-pronged mandate : to be a center of excellence in global affairs literacy, the locus of all CFR work targeted at student and educator populations, and a model for active engagement in civil discourse. The Director will be a seasoned educational leader who will ensure that the Haass Center’s materials, programming, operations, communications, and thought-leadership strategies work harmoniously to sustain and grow its reach, impact, and visibility. The Director will embrace their role as an intellectual leader, facilitating conversations within and beyond CFR about the importance of global affairs literacy and civil discourse. They will also be an attentive and skilled administrative leader, an effective liaison between the Haass Center and peer departments, and a seasoned manager committed to promoting a culture of inclusivity, teamwork, and respect.

EMPLOYMENT DETAILS

Salary Range : $275,00-$300,000.

Location and In-Person Commitment : There is a strong preference for the Director to be based in CFR’s New York City office, though working out of the Washington, DC office may also be considered. This role requires a consistent presence in the office as well as regular travel.

APPLICATIONS, INQUIRIES, AND NOMINATIONS

Nominations, inquiries, and applications, including resumes / CVs with cover letters responding to the opportunities and challenges outlined in the full position profile, should be submitted to the search team via the link below. Screening of applications will begin immediately and continue until the search process is completed. If you require reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, or otherwise participating in the candidate selection process, please direct your inquiries to Drew Chang at dchang@imsearch.com.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is committed to fostering a foreign policy community in the United States that is more representative of American society, recognizing that diverse backgrounds and perspectives contribute to broader, more informed participation in the foreign policy debate and lead to an enhanced understanding of the world and the United States’ role therein. To that end, CFR is dedicated to continuing to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout its work and workplace by building a more diverse membership and staff, producing and dispensing thoughtful analysis on a broad range of foreign policy issues, and developing relevant, wide-reaching programming that also serves to expand the foreign policy talent pipeline to underrepresented populations.

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