Dr. Margee Ensign is Chair of the Board of the GCRD. She is currently a Senior Fellow in the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College. With a distinguished career as university president for fifteen years across three continents, Dr. Ensign has led institutions in the U.S., in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in Bulgaria.

Dr. Ensign is a long-time advocate for universities to lead as civic actors and to connect learning to community engagement. For eight years, she was the president of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), where she also established and led the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API). Working with AUN, this broad-based, community-led organisation successfully countered Boko Haram in Northeast Nigeria through youth empowerment, education, and humanitarian assistance for 300,000 refugees. She also led the efforts to bring the kidnapped Chibok women to AUN.

Under her leadership at Dickinson College, it deepened its commitment to civic engagement by establishing the Center for Civic Learning and Action, with a grant awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Working with the religious, business, and academic community (including the US Army War College), Dr. Ensign established and led the Carlisle Action Network (CAN), a network of eighty NGO’s and faith-based groups, which won the statewide Hope award for its community leadership and support during COVID. During her presidencies, she has raised over $300 million for scholarships for underserved students as well as refugees, and university-community partnerships and projects.

A widely published scholar, Dr. Ensign’s work focuses on international development and the Rwandan genocide. She has presented at the World Economic Forum, the Commonwealth Heads of State Meetings. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on global education and foreign assistance. Her writings have appeared in publications like The Washington Post, The Hill, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, among others.

At this critical moment, when democracy is threatened around the globe, Dr. Ensign believes that uncovering truth and rebuilding trust and social progress in communities are essential.