Len Ishmael
Visiting Distinguished FellowDr. Len Ishmael is the former ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States to Belgium and to the European Union, and past president of the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Committee of Ambassadors in Brussels. She is a former director for the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, director general for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, alternate governor for the World Bank, and director for the Foundation - Leadership for Environment and Development of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.
She is a German Marshall Fund visiting senior fellow and distinguished visiting scholar and senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South (Morocco), and an associate member of the European Centre for Development Policy Management. Dr. Ishmael is The Fletcher School Tufts University GMAP Endowment fellow and is a member of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy GMAP Advisory Council. She was an expert witness for the United Kindom’s House of Lord’s inquiry into Commonwealth efforts post-Brexit to lift countries out of poverty through trade. She is also the special advisor (Europe) to the vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies. Dr. Ishmael was conferred a doctoral degree in development planning and development economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988 and a global Master of Arts from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University in 2018. Her other degrees include a Master’s in urban planning from City University, New York City, and a Bachelor’s degree in economics and geography from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. Dr. Ishmael operates her practice from Brussels, specializing in European affairs, the EU-ACP partnership, EU-African relations, EU-U.S relations, China in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, political and corporate diplomacy, and international development corporation. Her latest publications include “Soft Power & Global Ambition: The Case of China’s Growing Reach in Europe” (Fletcher Forum’s World Affairs, 2019) and “Under-Invested: The Caribbean-African Relationship” (Policy Center for the New South, 2019).