Secretary-General appoints Karla Robin Hershey of the 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 more than 30 years of experience in development coordination, international relations, resource mobilization, change management and humanitarian affairs, which she has acquired at the United Nations and externally, to the position. At the United Nations, she most recently served as the Representative and Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Liberia. She also held other senior-level representational roles, including United Nations Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Serbia and, prior to that, in Lesotho. With WFP, she was also a Senior Adviser on United Nations Reform in the USA, 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 Tanzania. She started her career with the Organization as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Angola. 

Prior to joining the United Nations, she worked with international non-governmental organizations World Vision International in Angola and Rotary International in the USA after completing an assignment as a Business Advisor to the Ministry of Youth and Cooperatives in Rwanda as part of the USA’s Peace Corps volunteer programme.  

Ms. Hershey completed post-graduate coursework from the London School of Economics and Political Science in London, UK and holds a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from the American InterContinental University in Atlanta, USA. She also has a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, USA and completed university coursework from Oxford University in Oxford, UK.