U.S. Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL), Former Clinton Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy William A. Galston, and Editor and Publisher of Foreign Policy magazine Moisés Naim, have joined the Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). All three men were elected to a three-year term by the NED Board at its September 8 meeting.
“The endowment is truly fortunate to welcome these three outstanding new board members,” said NED chairman Vin Weber. ” Mark Kirk, Bill Galston, and Moises Naim each bring s a wealth of practical experience to NED’s efforts to support democratic development in every part of the world.”
Kirk, representing the 10th district of Illinois since 2000, is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and serves as co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, the caucus of mainstream Republican Members of Congress.
Galston is a Senior Fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program. He was previously Saul Stern Professor at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland and the founding Director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
Naim has served as Venezuela’s Minister of Trade and Industry as well as Executive Director at the World Bank. He has written extensively on the political economy of international trade and investment, multilateral organizations, economic reforms, and globalization.
NED was created in 1983 as a private, nonprofit, grant-making foundation with a mission to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. With an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress, the NED Board, which is independent and bipartisan, makes hundreds of grants each year to support prodemocracy groups in more than 90 countries. The endowment supports projects that promote political and economic freedom and participation, human rights, a strong civil society, independent media and the rule of law.