Divya Khosla currently leads a team of experts and policy advisors at the U.S. Department of State that is focused on promoting US foreign policy and analyzing economic and energy security policies globally and regularly briefs senior White House officials. She has more than a decade of experience as a substantive expert on global humanitarian, human rights, and war crimes issues and served on the United States delegation to the Human Rights Council in Geneva for two years as a lead negotiator on a range of human rights resolutions. In addition to her role as an advisor to the previous US Ambassador in Geneva, she served at the US Mission in NY covering the Security Council, and has done rotations to USAID and a US military command.
Divya serves as the Deputy Executive Director of the SDK Foundation for Human Dignity and an Advisory Board Member for the Artistic Freedom Initiative, a non-profit focused on the provision of legal assistance to persecuted artists globally. Prior to working for the US Government, Divya was the lead researcher for a joint Columbia University and United Nations project on the post-election violence in Kenya, worked in the Counterterrorism Division of Human Rights Watch, and was a fellow at International Bridges to Justice, an NGO that focuses on global criminal justice reform. Her experience also includes working at a civil rights litigation firm in Washington DC, UNICEF, and the Vera Institute of Justice in NY, as well as for a former US Senator (NJ). She began her human rights career working in Tibetan refugee camp in Dharamsala, India, where she produced a documentary on human rights abuses and engaged the Dalai Lama.
She has published and edited pieces for the NYU Law and Security Center, BBC, the UN, and Columbia University. Divya received her BA from Middlebury College and London School of Economics, and her Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University. She has professional certificates from Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Leadership Program, MIT Sloan’s Executive Management Program, Oxford University’s Forced Migration Seminar, and the Salzburg School of Law’s International Humanitarian Law Series.
Divya Khosla is currently on leave from the AFI Board of Directors from March 2021 to present.