Natalia Kanem is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Kanem joined the United Nations in 2014 as the UNFPA Representative in the United Republic of Tanzania, and served as the Deputy Executive Director in charge of programmes from 2016 until her appointment as the Executive Director in 2017. Previously, she served as the Founding President of ELMA Philanthropies, Inc., a Senior Associate of the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies, and as the Ford Foundation Deputy Vice-President for peace and social justice programmes in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and North America. Kanem holds an M.D. from Columbia University in New York; an M.P.H., with specialisations in epidemiology and preventive medicine, from the University of Washington in Seattle; and a bachelor’s degree in history and science from Harvard College.