Rita E. Hauser, President of The Hauser Foundation, is an international lawyer and was a senior partner for more than twenty years at the New York City law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Dr. Hauser was appointed to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board in December, 2009. She served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from 2001 to 2004.
Dr. Hauser chairs The International Peace Institute (affiliated with the United Nations) and is Chair of the Advisory Board of the International Crisis Group. She served on the Foundation Board of the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, chaired by Kofi Annan from its inception in 2007 to January 2010. She chaired the American Ditchley Foundation, supporting Great Britain’s leading conference center from 2006 through December 2010, and was elected a Governor of the British Ditchley Foundation in July, 2010. She is a director of The International Advisory Council of The Lowy Institute for International Policy (Sydney, Australia). She was a director of: The International Institute for Strategic Studies (London) from 1996-2006 and The RAND Corporation from 1999-2009, and the International Board, The Center for International Governance Innovation (Canada) from 2005-2009. She served on the Visiting Committee of the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University, and was a Vice-Chairman of the Dean’s Advisory Board at Harvard Law School. Dr. Hauser was National Co-Chair of the last Harvard University Campaign. She holds advanced degrees from the University of Strasbourg in France, Harvard and NYU Law Schools, and the University of Paris Law Faculty.
She is a Director of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, and was a Director of the New York Philharmonic Society for more than twenty years. She was elected a Director of the New America Foundation in December, 2009.
In April 1997 she and her husband founded The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University, and she is Chair of its Advisory Board. The Hausers were the principal benefactors of the Hauser Global Law School Program at New York University Law School which supports the Global Scholars Program and Visiting Global Faculty. It is the centerpiece of the Law School’s global initiative. Dr. Hauser serves on the Board of Trustees of New York University Law School.
She was awarded The Judge Edward Weinfeld Award in 2008, as well as The Albert Gallatin Medal in 2006, which are the highest honors for public service of New York University; and the Vanderbilt Medal in 2004, the highest honor of New York University School of Law. She was honored in October 2008 with the Award of the Women’s Leadership Summit of Harvard Law School and in 1999 received The Harvard Medal for distinguished service to Harvard University.