These members of the American Council on Women Peace and Security have worked in the United States, at the United Nations, and around the world in their diverse professional occupations promoting peace, security, justice, and development.
Ambassador Steven E. Steiner
Advisory Committee Member
Ambassador Steven E. Steiner served from 2011 to 2018 as a gender advisor for the U.S. Institute of Peace. He previously served in the Department of State’s Office of Global Women‘s Issues and the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. He was the director of the Department’s Iraqi Women’s Democracy Initiative. Steiner served for 36 years in the United States Foreign Service. He completed tours of duty at the U.S. embassy in Moscow and the State Department’s Offices of Soviet Union and West German Affairs and served as the deputy director of the Department’s Operations Center, its 24-hour crisis management facility.
Abbe Jolles
Legal Counsel
Abbe Jolles is counsel to the American Council on Women, Peace and Security. She is a Washington, D.C.- based international human rights litigator representing clients worldwide, including those in conflict zones. She serves as a corporate human rights advisor to global corporations and is founding member and executive officer of Hear Their Cries, an organization dedicated to ending child sex abuse in the international aid industry. Read more here.
Jennifer Arangio
Advisory Committee Member
Jennifer Arangio is a senior national security and humanitarian assistance professional with over two decades of policy, strategic leadership, advocacy and communications experience. She has advised members of Congress and senior federal officials throughout her career, most recently as the Chief Advisor to the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). While there she led an Agency-wide strategic review on the secondary and tertiary effects of COVID-19 and managed a diverse set of humanitarian and development issues.
laura lederer
Advisory Committee Member
Founder and director of the Protection Project at Harvard University. Served as Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State. Also, Executive Director of the Senior Policy Operating Group on Trafficking in Persons, a high-level policy group that staffed the President’s cabinet-level Inter-agency Task Force. Read more here.
Helmut guti m.
Advisory Committee Member
Helmut is a servant of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a creative director, producer and entrepreneur with a passion for digital media and its power to make a positive impact in society. He is the founder of Stellar Cinematics, a multimedia creative boutique. Fighting sex trafficking is at the top of his social work. Furthermore, he believes awareness through audio visual media is paramount to promote community engagement in helping and protecting children and vulnerable minorities at risk of sex trade.