Aaron Williams is the former Director of the US Peace Corps, appointed by President Obama and served in that position from 2009 to 2012. Prior to his appointment he co-led the Obama-Biden transition team for the foreign assistance agencies (USAID, MCC and PEPFAR).

Following his government service, he returned to RTI International, where since 2003, he had been a senior executive, serving as executive vice president of the international development group from 2012-2015, then from 2016-2018 as executive vice president for government relations and corporate communications. He is now senior advisor-emeritus, for international development & government relations.

In 2015, he was appointed by President Obama as the US Alternative Representative to the executive board of UNICEF. He has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in public service and in the private sector, which began when he served for three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic.

Mr. Williams served for 22 years at USAID, where he reached the rank of Career Minister in the Senior Foreign Service. His awards include the USAID Distinguished Career Service Award in 1998 and the Presidential Award for Distinguished Service in 1988 and 1992. He has extensive experience in the strategic design and management of assistance programs in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He is a frequent lecturer and panelist on international development topics at universities, research and policy institutes, and at US and global conferences. He is an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina – Gillings School of Global Public Health.

In his memoir, A Life Unimagined, he describes how he devoted his career to public service, and his life journey reveals important perspectives into the complex interactions of international development, global business and US foreign policy.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and of the American Academy of Diplomacy. Mr. Williams serves on the Board of Directors of World Education Services, Ron Brown Scholar Program, IREX, and CADCA. He has previously served on the boards of CARE, ChildFund International, The George Washington University – Elliott School of International Affairs’ Advisory Board, and the Institute for Sustainable Communities.

He received his MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and obtained a BS in Geography from Chicago State University.