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SIPA Faculty
Gerald R. Martone
International Affairs Building, 13th Floor
Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs
Phone: 212-551-3061
gm2060@columbia.edu
Biography:
Gerald Martone is the Director of Humanitarian Affairs at the International Rescue Committee. He leads advocacy initiatives that seek to gain support from policy makers and the general public for people affected by political oppression, natural disasters, and violent conflict.
From 1995 to 2005, Mr. Martone was IRC’s Director of Emergency Response. He launched and oversaw emergency relief missions during major humanitarian crises in Burundi, Liberia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Congo, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, East Timor, Northern Uganda, Bosnia, Angola, Ethiopia, the Darfur region of Sudan, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq, and tsunami-affected regions of Indonesia. Mr. Martone also spent extensive time working in other crisis zones including Somalia, Haiti, and Pakistan.
Since August 2011, Mr. Martone has been serving a three-year elected term as Vice Chair of the influential NGO-UN Security Council Working Group. Its members actively advocate at the United Nations with Security Council Permanent Representatives, Political Officers, Special Representatives, Special Envoys, and other senior level delegates to promote policies that improve the lives of refugees and people uprooted by political conflict.
Mr. Martone served two elected terms as the Co-Chair of the Disaster Response Committee of InterAction, the coalition of U.S.-based humanitarian and development agencies. He was also a member of the Management Committee of the Sphere Project, which establishes standards for providing humanitarian assistance in emergencies.
Mr. Martone is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs, where he teaches the Humanitarian Affairs Practicum. He has published numerous articles and book chapters about international aid and is an active spokesperson on humanitarian assistance and human rights.
The International Rescue Committee, founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, carries out humanitarian relief and development programs in over 40 countries and operates a network of refugee resettlement offices in 22 cities across the United States.