Director of the Islam Initiative, Carnegie Corporation

Hillary Wiesner directs the Carnegie Corporation’s Islam Initiative, a transdisciplinary programme that aims to increase understanding of the diversity of thought, cultures and history of predominantly Muslim societies.

Prior to joining the Corporation in 2007, she worked for 13 years in France as an international civil servant in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO-Paris). As a Programme Specialist she worked with governmental and NGO partners in the social sciences, tolerance and religions, philosophy and ethics.

She became an Executive Officer in 2000, handling relations with the United States for the Director-General of UNESCO. She holds a B.A. in religion from Harvard, an M.A. from the University of Chicago on the Ancient Mediterranean World, and a Ph.D. from Harvard's Committee on the Study of Religion, with a focus on the cross-religious continuity and interactions seen in ancient monuments and texts.