Board Member

Sylvia Mathews Burwell

Sylvia Mathews Burwell

President, American University

Sylvia Mathews Burwell is the fifteenth president of American University (AU) and the first woman to serve in the role. Under her leadership, AU has more than doubled its externally-funded research grants, become the first university in the United States to achieve carbon-neutrality, and increased its endowment by more than 40 percent.

 

Burwell previously served as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she oversaw the agency’s eleven operating divisions. In this position, she led the successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the department’s responses to the Ebola and Zika outbreaks. Prior to that, she served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, where she worked with Congress to negotiate the two-year budget deal that ended the 2013 government shutdown.

Burwell was the president of the Walmart Foundation. She also was president and founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Development Program and the foundation’s first chief operating officer.

Burwell received undergraduate degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She serves on the boards of the American Council on Education, GuideWell, and Kimberly-Clark.

Burwell is a proud native of Hinton, West Virginia. She is based in Washington, DC.

Top Stories on CFR

United States

Temporary protected status has long been used as a humanitarian solution for migrants who are unable to return home safely, but efforts to give them a path to citizenship have reignited the debate around the U.S. immigration policy.  

Women and Women's Rights

The world’s nations are lagging woefully behind in meeting targets for achieving gender equality by 2030, but a new round of initiatives has stirred hope of progress.

United States

Amid renewed calls for changes in the world order, U.S. President Joe Biden sought to stress his support for greater inclusion of developing nations in addressing economic, social, and climate concerns.