Alexander Djerassi is a policy strategist and entrepreneur working at the intersection of government, philanthropy, and technology. He currently advises leaders and organizations on political and philanthropic strategy.

 

Djerassi has served as a policy strategist, subject matter expert, and operational leader at the U.S. Department of State’s Near Eastern Affairs Bureau (NEA), where he was Special Assistant and Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary; at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; at Mos, a venture-backed civic-technology company where he was the first hire; and on the policy staff and transition teams of multiple presidential campaigns.

 

At NEA, the State Department bureau overseeing U.S. relations with the Arab world, Israel, and Iran, he served as a primary interlocutor across the Department, the interagency, and external stakeholders, and received the State Department’s Meritorious Honor Award in 2010. At Carnegie, he coauthored a report with former Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher and EU Ambassador Marc Pierini on Tunisia’s democratic transition. At Mos, he helped build a college affordability service from scratch, closing gaps between government agencies, school counselors, and students.

 

He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, where his thesis on the Arab-Israeli conflict received the 2006 Ullman Prize.

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He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, a 501(c)3 organization providing residencies to artists of all disciplines from around the world. The organization was established in memory of Djerassi's aunt, Pamela Djerassi.