Suzanne Nos­sel serves as the Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of PEN Amer­i­ca, the lead­ing human rights and free expres­sion orga­ni­za­tion. She is a lead­ing voice on free expres­sion issues in the Unit­ed States and glob­al­ly, writ­ing and being inter­viewed fre­quent­ly for nation­al and inter­na­tion­al media out­lets. Her pri­or career spanned gov­ern­ment ser­vice and lead­er­ship roles in the cor­po­rate and non­prof­it sec­tors. She has served as the Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer of Human Rights Watch and as Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al USA. Dur­ing the first term of the Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion, Nos­sel served as Deputy Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State for Inter­na­tion­al Orga­ni­za­tions, where she led U.S. engage­ment in the Unit­ed Nations and mul­ti­lat­er­al insti­tu­tions, on human rights and human­i­tar­i­an issues. Nos­sel coined the term ​“Smart Pow­er,” which was the title of a 2004 arti­cle she pub­lished in For­eign Affairs Mag­a­zine and lat­er became the theme of Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton’s tenure in office. Nos­sel is a magna cum laude grad­u­ate of both Har­vard Col­lege and Har­vard Law School.