Best-Selling Author and Journalist Gayle Tzemach Lemmon Joins Mercy Corps Board of Directors

PORTLAND, Ore. — The global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps today announced that Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a deputy director on the Council on Foreign Relations and best-selling author, has joined its Board of Directors.

“We are thrilled to add Gayle’s experience and energy to our board,” said Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO, Mercy Corps. “She brings a unique combination of expertise in journalism, public policy, business and international development, plus an incredibly dynamic personality. I am confident she will boost Mercy Corps’ efforts to tackle the world’s toughest problems.”

Ms. Lemmon is currently the deputy director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Women and Foreign Policy Program, and also serves as contributing editor-at-large at Newsweek and the Daily Beast. Prior to joining the Council, she spent over a decade as a journalist with ABC News, and has reported on entrepreneurs in post-conflict regions for the Financial Times, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, among others. Her vast collection of work includes a 2011 Newsweek and Daily Beast profile on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her efforts to bolster the rights of women and girls around the world.

In 2011, after three years of on-the-ground interviews in Afghanistan and abroad, Ms. Lemmon published "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana." The best-selling book tells the story of a young, female entrepreneur named Kamila Sidiqi who provided jobs and hope for dozens of women under the Taliban. Sidiqi went on to become an early leader of Mercy Corps’ microfinance work for women in Afghanistan.

“I am excited to join Mercy Corps’ Board,” said Ms. Lemmon. “I have seen again and again — in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Rwanda — that people in even the most difficult environments clamor for opportunities to earn money and build better lives for their children. Mercy Corps is dedicated to incredibly valuable work: creating smart, sustainable, often business-inspired solutions that help people improve their own lives. I am pleased to be part of these very important efforts.”

Ms. Lemmon holds degrees from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and Harvard Business School, where she received the 2006 Dean’s Award for her work on women’s entrepreneurship.

About Mercy Corps: Mercy Corps helps people turn the crises they confront into the opportunities they deserve. Driven by local needs, our programs provide communities in the world’s toughest places with the tools and support they need to transform their own lives. Our worldwide team in over 40 countries is improving the lives of 19 million people. For more information, see mercycorps.org.