Carl Gershman

Carl Gershman (born July 20, 1943) is an American civil servant who served as the president of the National Endowment for Democracy since its founding in 1984 until 2021. Gershman previously served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council during the first term of the Reagan Administration. Gershman was the executive director of the Social Democrats, USA from 1975 to 1980, having previously been an officer of the Young People's Socialist League. From 1965 to 1967, he served in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Volunteers in Service to America (now AmeriCorps VISTA). He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. Early life and education Gershman was born into a Jewish family in New York City on July 20, 1943. In 1961, he graduated magna cum laude from the Horace Mann Preparatory School in the Riverdale section of The Bronx. As an undergraduate at Yale University, he was active in the Yale Civil Rights Council, and volunteered in Mississippi and Alabama. In 1965, he graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.