Draft:Algene Sajery

• Comment: Does not appear to meet WP:ANYBIO or WP:GNG. Presented sources are not meeting WP:RS requirements. Hitro talk 09:24, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

---

Algene Sajery

Algene Sajery

Former Vice President of External Affairs and Head of Global Gender Equity Initiatives Biden Administration

Preceded By: Judith Pryor

Succeeded By: Caitlin Klevorick

Education: B.A. in English and African American Studies from Howard University

Algene Sajery (born on March 1, 1977) is a Liberian-American foreign policy, national security and political advisor, businesswoman, and podcaster.. She is a former public official in the United States, having served as a senior Biden administration political appointee and senior Congressional staffer in the United States Senate and House of Representatives .

Early Life and Education

Algene Sajery is a first generation Liberian-American who migrated to the United States at three years old as a political asylee after the 1980 coup in Liberia. Ms. Sajery grew up in the notoriously dangerous Park Hill section of Staten Island, N.Y., home to the largest Liberian community outside of Africa. To escape the violence in her community, Ms. Sajery's' mother sent her to attend high school at Milton Hershey School, a boarding school for disadvantaged children in Hershey, Pennsylvania .

Ms. Sajery holds bachelor of arts degrees in English and African American Studies from Howard University, followed by graduate studies in Global Security Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a senior executive certificate in National and International Security from Harvard University Kennedy School .

Career

Catalyst Global Strategies, LLC

Ms. Sajery is Founder and CEO of Catalyst Global Strategies, LLC, a public affairs firm offering bespoke public affairs services, including government relations, partnership development, commercial diplomacy, stakeholder engagement, and strategic communications. The firm collaborates with nonprofits, businesses, foundations, and impact investors to Catalyst partners with nonprofits, businesses, foundations, and impact investors to advance, fund, and scale policies and initiatives that improve the lives and livelihoods of people in the developing world.Catalyst clients range from unions, political candidates, multinational banks, and non governmental organizations (NGOs) .

Biden Administration

Ms. Sajery served in the Biden Administration as Vice President of the Office of External Affairs and head of Global Gender Equity Initiatives at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) from January, 2021 to September, 2022 . At DFC, Ms. Sajery led a team of public affairs professionals responsible for congressional affairs, communications and stakeholder engagement. She spearheaded the agency's 2X gender-lens investing initiative, and supported agency diversity, equity and inclusion and employee engagement efforts. As a member of the DFC’s Executive Leadership Team, Ms. Sajery sat on the agency's Investment Committee, evaluating transactions over $20 million, and engaged with the Board of Directors and Development Advisory Council . As head of Global Gender Equity Initiatives, Ms. Sajery served on the White House Gender Policy Council, helping to shape Biden administration policies and programs on global gender lens investing . Upon her departure, colleagues across DFC and the Biden Administration appalled her leadership implementing systems and initiatives to develop her department, increase morale and diversity, equity, and inclusion across the agency, and strengthen the DFC’s 2X gender-lens investing initiative .

United States Congress

Ms. Sajery spent nearly two decades on Capitol Hill. She was a senior foreign policy and national security advisor to U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (MD) from 2012-2020 and from 2015-2018, concurrently as democratic policy director of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (SFRC). She made history as the first African American woman to serve in a senior leadership role on the prestigious.

Ms. Sajery previously held leadership roles in the House of Representatives, including as democratic staff director for the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights under the leadership of the late Rep. Donald Payne, Sr. (NJ); and chief of staff and legislative director to Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY). She began her career in Congress in 2002 as a scheduler and press secretary to the late Rep. John Conyers (MI) .

During her tenure in Congress, Ms. Sajery played a crucial role in drafting landmark human rights, national security, and foreign policy laws. Some of her notable contributions include writing and negotiating enactment on behalf of Senator Cardin the Global Magnitsky Human Rights and Accountability Act, P.L. 114-328; Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, P.L. 115-441; the Syrian War Crimes and Accountability Act, section 1232 of P.L. 115-232; the Foreign Assistance Transparency and Accountability Act (FATAA), P.L. 114-191; the African Growth and Opportunity Act and Millennium Challenge Act Modernization Act (AGOA and MCA Modernization Act), P.L. 115-167; the Global Food Security Act, P.L. 114-195; and the Electrify Africa Act, P.L. 115-428 .

Ms. Sajery also co-founded the Congressional African Staff Association and served as a staff lead on several congressional caucuses and task forces, including the Senate National Security Working Group, HIV/AIDS Caucus, the Sudan Caucus, and the CBC’s Foreign Policy and National Security Task Force

The Minority Leaders Podcast

Ms. Sajery is the creator, producer and host of The Minority Leaders Podcast,, a diversity and equity initiative of Catalyst, that highlights the career journeys of women of color changemakers in politics and policymaking. Podcast guests offer career advice to the next generation of women of color leaders and discuss critical public policy issues, most notably foreign policy and national security .