Barbara Hendrie

Barbara Hendrie is the Regional Director for the UN Environment Programme's North America Office. She has over two decades experience in sustainable development and humanitarian affairs, working for both the United Kingdom and United States governments. She was a senior official in the United Kingdom's Department for International Development from 1999 to 2015, and a senior political appointee of the U.S. President from 2015 to 2016, based in the United States Agency for International Development.

In 2016, Barbara co-led the United States Agency for International Development’s work on the World Humanitarian Summit and the President’s Refugee Summit. In 2015, she was Chief Negotiator for the United Kingdom on the United Nations Financing for Development Agenda and co-leader for the United Kingdom on the establishment of the global Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to that position and as head of the Conflict, Humanitarian and Security team at the Department for International Development, she led the UK $500 million annual response to humanitarian emergencies worldwide. From 2006 to 2007, she was in charge of reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

In 2009, Barbara was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. She is also the first recipient (and inspiration for the creation of) the Bowdoin College Common Good Award in 1993. Barbara began her career in the mid-1980s when she co-led a civil society consortium providing emergency relief to famine-affected people in the Horn of Africa. Barbara, a native of Bellport, New York, has a Ph.D. and Master in social anthropology from University College, London, UK, and a B.A. in English from Bowdoin College in Maine, USA.