Expertise

Poverty alleviation; human rights; US foreign policy; international development

At the Keough School

Raymond C. Offenheiser leads the Pulte Institute for Global Development in its mission to promote human development and dignity among people worldwide. He also serves as professor of the practice at Notre Dame, teaching graduate and undergraduate students in a course on the foundations of sustainable development. Offenheiser is a member of the Keough School’s Leadership Council. He is a longstanding member of the advisory board of the Keough School’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Courses

• Policy Lab: Sustainability, Ethics, and Natural Resources (course for master of global affairs and undergraduate global affairs major)
• Policy Lab: Why do Pope Francis, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates Worry About the Inequality Pandemic? (course for master of global affairs and undergraduate global affairs major)

Biography

Offenheiser oversees and develops the Pulte Institute’s academic, research, and public policy activities, as well as its strategy for long-term growth. He also identifies and cultivates critical, strategic partnerships between the Institute and companies, federal agencies, foundations, and private philanthropists. Additionally, he represents the Pulte Institute at local, national, and international events.

A widely known nonprofit leader and innovator with a broad range of international development experience in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Offenheiser served as president of Oxfam America for 20 years. Under his leadership, the agency grew eightfold and repositioned itself in the United States as an influential voice on international development, human rights and governance, humanitarianism, and foreign assistance.

Prior to joining Oxfam, Offenheiser represented the Ford Foundation in Bangladesh and the Andean and Southern Cone regions of South America. He has directed programs for the Inter-American Foundation in Brazil and Colombia, and he has worked for Save the Children Federation in Mexico. At the 2012 G20 Summit, he was appointed by the Obama administration to represent civil society interests on the leadership council of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa.

Offenheiser has served as honorary president of Wetlands International, and he was a co-founder of the ONE Campaign, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and the Food Policy Action Network. He has served on the advisory boards of the World Economic Forum, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute, the World Agricultural Forum, the Gates Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, Harvard Business School, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and Cornell University.

A 1971 graduate of Notre Dame, Offenheiser also holds a master’s degree in development sociology from Cornell University. He currently serves chair of the board of directors for BRAC USA is the US-based affiliate of international development organization BRAC, one of the largest nongovernmental organizations in the world, which reaches more than 100 million people in 11 countries with evidence-based approaches that enable people to change their lives.  Offenheiser has been a frequent commentator with US and international media.

In the Media

• The humanitarian response to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria (Sky News Arabia – in Arabic)