Ryan Kaminski

Ryan Kaminski has over a decade of experience in human rights, sustainable development, and international public policy. He is currently the LGBTQI+ Advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Inclusive Development Hub. Based in the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI) the Hub promotes the rights and inclusion of marginalized and under-represented populations in the development process.

Previously, he was the World Benchmarking Alliance’s Global Public Policy Lead. In this role, he led the organization’s multilateral advocacy strategy at the UN, G7, and G20 with the goal of holding the world’s most influential corporations to account on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and human rights standards. This included leading WBA’s engagement at the UN High Level Political Forum, UN General Assembly, and at the UN Human Rights Council where he worked regularly with diplomats, business leaders, human rights advocates, and other international decisionmakers.

Ryan was also the Human Rights Policy Advisor at the UN Foundation overseeing high-level advocacy, cross-sector partnerships, and campaigns with a focus on LGBTQI+ human rights, the SDGs, and U.S.-UN relations. There he worked to build bridges with hundreds of UNA-USA grassroots advocates across the country and UN human rights mechanisms including the UN Human Rights Council and Universal Periodic Review mechanism. He also briefed congressional membership and staff on developments in the UN human rights system.

He has authored and co-published reports and articles with the Council on Foreign Relations CFR, Center for American Progress, Just Security, The Atlantic, The Advocate, Yale Journal of International Affairs, and Georgetown Journal of International Affairs on topics including human rights, U.S. foreign policy, and international institutions. Ryan's latest piece is a co-authored chapter in the book, The North Korea Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security.

Ryan has also consulted for Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria on the role of civic space in combating global epidemics and was a research associate at the CFR International Institutions and Global Governance Program . He was also previously a U.S. Fulbright Fellow at Education University of Hong Kong. He interned at Papua New Guinea’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, Amnesty International USA, and at the Brookings Institution.

Ryan is currently a CFR Term Member, Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project, and appeared on the Out in National Security Leadership List in 2020. He has also run marathons in Hong Kong, New York, and Chicago and is excited to run the Honolulu Marathon in 2022.

Ryan received his BA from the University of Chicago and MIA from Columbia University. He is based in Washington DC and a Chicago native.