Meet Carolyn A. Reynolds, Distinguished Fellow

Carolyn Reynolds has been driving change in global health and development and US foreign policy for three decades. As well as being a Distinguished Fellow with The George Institute for Global Health, Carolyn is a Senior Associate with the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she is serving as an expert adviser to the CSIS Commission for Health Security. She is also a consultant to the World Bank Group and other international organizations. 

Until January 2019 Carolyn served as Vice President for Policy and Advocacy at PATH, an international non-profit organization supporting health innovation in developing countries.  At PATH, she led a team of more than 40 staff across seven countries to shape evidence-based policies, strengthen partner advocacy capacity, and mobilize public and private resources to improve the health and well-being of people in low-resource settings across Asia and Africa. In this role, she served as PATH’s principal representative to the US government and multilateral organizations, and she led a successful effort to increase US support for international epidemic preparedness.

Prior to joining PATH, Ms. Reynolds was a senior adviser and manager for external and corporate relations at the World Bank Group. In this role she led the Bank Group’s strategic communications and policy advocacy efforts in global health, education and human development, including to mobilize the international response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa in 2014-2016 and to increase political support and financing for universal health coverage and education for all. In earlier positions, she also shaped and led the expansion of the Bank’s global engagement with civil society organizations (CSOs) around the world.

Previously, Ms. Reynolds also was managing director for the US Global Leadership Campaign, where she led a successful issue advocacy campaign to elevate global health, development and “smart power” as priority issues during the 2008 US presidential election. She also directed advocacy and legislative efforts for InterAction, the association of US-based international humanitarian and development CSOs, and she served as legislative aide and acting Africa subcommittee director for the late US Senator Paul Simon (D-IL). She started her career in international development as a volunteer teacher in rural Kenya with WorldTeach and working on a USAID-funded project to facilitate partnerships between US and African CSOs.

Ms. Reynolds holds a Master’s in International Affairs with a concentration in Economic and Political Development from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.  She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two daughters.