Farha Tahir

Farha Tahir (’09) is founder and principal of FT Global Advisors, a consulting firm specializing in strategy development for democracy and human rights organizations. She most recently served as the global policy lead for human rights defenders and political prisoners in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL). She was also previously democracy lead in DRL’s Office of Global Programs, where she led democracy strategy and managed the office’s flagship $210M democracy fund. Prior to her government service, Farha worked at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), with a regional focus on Africa. She began her career as a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Outside her full-time positions, Farha has also been an adjunct fellow with CSIS’s Human Rights Initiative and an Africa Analyst for Freedom House’s annual Freedom in the World report. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Security Fellow of the Truman National Security Project. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, she is originally from Shorewood, Wisconsin.