Career
She previously served as Principal Policy Advisor and Counselor to the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, Susan Rice. She also served as Sherpa to Ambassador Rice for the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability. Prior to joining USUN, Cousens was Director of Strategy for The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre).
Earlier, she served with United Nations political missions in Nepal and the Middle East and worked extensively on peacebuilding and development issues in conflict zones.
Cousens was previously Vice President of the International Peace Institute, where she led initiatives on emerging global issues and United Nations reform, and Director of the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum, a research group that provides country and regional expertise to the United Nations on crisis situations. Cousens has a Doctorate.Phil. in international relations from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Puget Sound.
