Larry Garber is a senior technical adviser at Digital Mobilizations Inc., a start-up company that delivers engineering support for enterprises reinventing the way they use information. He is a former senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and served on the faculty of the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy from January 2015 to January 2017. At the Eisenhower School, he taught classes on national security strategy and policy, Africa regional studies, and fragile states and development. At USAID, Mr. Garber served as a senior manager and policy adviser for more than 15 years, including five years as mission director for USAID/West Bank-Gaza, one of the agency’s largest and most politically sensitive posts, and two separate stints as the acting head of USAID’s policy bureau. From October 2010 to July 2011, he was detailed to the Africa Bureau, where he served as the agency point person for the referendum on Southern Sudan independence. And from March to August 2011, he led an intra-agency Middle East Strategic Planning Group, which recommended a reframing of agency programmatic approaches in response to developments in the Middle East and North Africa region. Before rejoining USAID in November 2009, Mr. Garber served as chief executive officer of the New Israel Fund, which aims to strengthen Israel’s democracy by supporting programs that safeguard civil and human rights. From 1982 to 1993, he worked with the National Democratic Institute, the International Human Rights Law Group, and Steptoe and Johnson law firm. He also has served as a consultant on election-related matters for the Organization of American States, United Nations, and Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Mr. Garber has written extensively on issues relating to human rights, democratization, election monitoring, and Palestinian political and economic development. He is the author of Guidelines for International Election Observing (International Human Rights Law Group, 1984) and coeditor of The New Democratic Frontier: A Country-by-Country Assessment of the 1990 Elections in Central and Eastern Europe (National Democratic Institute, 1992). In 2007-2008, he was a member of a six-person National Academies of Science expert panel, which prepared the publication “Improving Democracy Assistance: Building Knowledge Through Evaluations and Research.” Mr. Garber is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has played an active role in various communities of practice. He recently prepared a 12-lesson on-line course for the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna’s Masters Program in Electoral Policy and Administration. And for many years, he served as an adjunct faculty member at the Washington College of Law at the American University. Mr. Garber received a bachelor’s degree from Queens College in 1976 and a joint law degree and master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University in 1980.
