Secretary-General Appoints Karla Robin Hershey of United States United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bhutan

On 1 March, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Karla Robin Hershey of the United States as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bhutan, with the host Government’s approval.

Ms. Hershey brings to the position more than 30 years of experience in development coordination, international relations, resource mobilization, change management and humanitarian affairs, acquired at the United Nations and externally.

Within the Organization, Ms. Hershey served most recently as Representative and Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Liberia.  She was also United Nations Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Serbia and in Lesotho before that.

At WFP, Ms. Hershey was most recently a Senior Adviser on United Nations Reform in the United States, Representative and Country Director in Eswatini, Country Director ad interim in Syria, Deputy Country Director and Head of Programme in Malawi and Head of Resource Mobilization, Food Procurement and Pipeline Management in the United Republic of Tanzania.

Ms. Hershey began her United Nations career as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Angola.

Before joining the Organization, she worked with the international non-governmental organizations World Vision International in Angola and Rotary International in the United States after completing an assignment as Business Adviser to the Ministry of Youth and Cooperatives in Rwanda as part of the United States Peace Corps volunteer programme.

Ms. Hershey completed her post-graduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London, United Kingdom, and holds a master’s degree in business administration from the American InterContinental University in Atlanta, in the United States.  She has a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, in the United States, and completed university coursework from Oxford University in the United Kingdom.