Nancy Birdsall is president emeritus at the Center for Global Development, a policy-oriented research institution that opened its doors in Washington, DC in October 2001, as well as a member of the board of directors. Prior to launching the Center, Birdsall served for three years as senior associate and director of the Economic Reform Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her work at Carnegie focused on issues of globalization and inequality, as well as on the reform of the international financial institutions.