Sam Vigersky is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His research and writing focus on humanitarian statecraft and modernizing emergency relief in response to armed conflicts and natural disasters.
He previously served as senior humanitarian advisor to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, where he led humanitarian policy in the UN Security Council and General Assembly. Vigersky worked in USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) from 2014 to 2019, developing and managing an annual budget of over $400 million in programs across two dozen countries. He led U.S. Disaster Assistance Response Teams in Liberia and Sierra Leone during the West Africa Ebola outbreak (2014-15), the Ethiopia drought (2016), and the Boko Haram complex emergency in Northeast Nigeria (2016).
Vigersky worked at the Pan American Health Organization, where he led preparedness initiatives throughout the Caribbean and lived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, following the 2010 earthquake and cholera outbreak. He has worked domestically at the DC Department of Health, the University of Michigan, and the American Red Cross. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from Reed College in Oregon and a master of social work degree from the University of Michigan.
