Ambassador Dr. Len Ishmael is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South (Morocco) and a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She serves as the Global Affairs Advisor and Head of Expert Groups at the Brussels Diplomatic Academy of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and is a visiting professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Morocco. At UM6P, she teaches in both the MSc Program on New South Dynamics and the Joint HEC Paris/Public Policy School Executive Program on Geopolitics and Geo-economics.

Dr. Ishmael is the former Ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union, where she also served as President of the 79-member African, Caribbean & Pacific (ACP) Committee of Ambassadors in Brussels. She was a Commissioner on the UN/Lancet COVID-19 Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Her extensive career includes leadership roles as Director of the Regional Headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America & the Caribbean, Director General of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, Alternate Governor of the World Bank, and Director for the Foundation Leadership for Environment & Development at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.

An accomplished international speaker, Dr. Ishmael is widely recognized for her expertise on relations between the West and the Global South. She has authored numerous publications on topics such as the New South/Global South, geopolitics, Africa-EU relations, China, and the Trans-Atlantic/Wider Atlantic relationship. Her most recent book, which she edited and co-authored, is titled Aftermath of War in Ukraine: The West vs the Global South? published by the Policy Center for the New South in 2023.

Dr. Ishmael holds a Doctorate in Development Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in international relations and diplomacy from Tufts University, a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the City University of New York, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.