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Gayle Smith

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Gayle Smith

CEO, ONE Campaign; former Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security, US Department of State
Gayle Smith

Gayle Smith is CEO of the ONE Campaign. She has advised three American presidents and is a leading expert on global development and health security. At the request of the Secretary of State, Smith served the Biden Administration in 2021 as the Coordinator for Global COVID Response & Health Security. Prior to joining ONE, Smith was confirmed by the Senate as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and served as Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Development and Democracy at the National Security Council, where she helped lead the Ebola response and major initiatives including Power Africa and Feed the Future. Smith founded the Sustainable Security Program at the Center for American Progress and co-founded the ENOUGH project and the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network. She served as Special Assistant to President Clinton and Senior Director for African Affairs at the NSC in the late 1990s after working in Africa as a journalist and with NGOs for almost 20 years. Smith is from Ohio and graduated from the University of Colorado. Smith won first place in the standing long jump in elementary school.