Tonight, on the occasion of this weekend’s White House Correspondents' Dinner, Devex is hosting "The Global Beat," a cocktail reception celebrating international affairs journalism, with Foreign Affairs magazine and support from the United Nations Foundation. But who are the White House officials that matter to global development? Find out by clicking through this slideshow.

1. Photo by: Justin Brown / CC BY-NC-SA
In honor of the White House Correspondents’
Dinner...
9 White House officials
who matter for global development

2. On the NSC, Smith advises U.S.
President Barack Obama on issues
related to global
development, democracy and
humanitarian affairs. Smith worked as
a journalist in Africa for 20 years
before relocating to
Washington, where she was a co-
chair of the Modernizing Foreign Aid
Network, senior fellow at the Center
for American Progress and co-founder
of the Enough Project to end
genocide and crimes against
humanity.
Gayle Smith
Special assistant to the president and senior
director, National Security Council
Photo by: Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World

3. Ben Rhodes
Assistant to the president and deputy national
security advisor for strategic communications
and speechwriting
Rhodes gained prominence as one of
Obama’s startlingly young and
talented speech writers during the
2008 campaign. Now he’s a high-level
adviser to the president who also
happens to care about international
development. Rhodes now liaises with
the U.S. Agency for International
Development to guide the president’s
engagement with developing
countries.
Photo by: The White House

4. Photo by: The White House
After her recent stint as U.S.
ambassador to the United
Nations, Rice, a longtime friend of the
Obama family, now chairs the National
Security Committee. She was a
member of the Obama-Biden
transition project in 2008 while
serving as a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution, where she
focused on fragile states.
Susan Rice
National security adviser

5. Atkinson represents the president at
major international economic summits
and advises Rice on issues related to
international economic affairs and
investment. Atkinson came to the
Obama White House by way of the
International Monetary Fund, where
she was a senior executive.
Caroline Atkinson
Deputy assistant to the president and deputy
national security advisor for international
economics
Photo by: CSIS / CC BY-NC-SA

6. Froman preceded Caroline Atkinson as
deputy national security advisor for
international economic affairs, and
while technically no longer within the
White House, he still occupies a
crucial advisory position on
international trade and investment
issues at a time when the
development agenda, especially in
Africa, is shifting dramatically from aid
to trade.
Michael Froman
U.S. trade representative
Photo by: World Trade Organization / CC BY-SA

7. Thomisee runs a high-level advisory
group appointed to provide
independent insight and analysis of
the administrations’ global
development policies and goals. The
council’s first public meeting was
delayed for a year, but last month the
group issued recommendations to the
president and plans to continue doing
so.
Jayne Thomisee
Executive director, Global Development
Council
Photo by: Tim Hamilton / CC BY-NC-ND

8. Photo by: Kris Krug/PopTech / CC BY-SA
Described as a serial entrepreneur,
Greenblatt leads his office’s efforts to
“leverage human capital and financial
capital to elevate community solutions.”
As the White House point person on
impact investing and social enterprise,
Greenblatt has elevated the
conversation around how the
government should interact with the
private sector to accomplish social goals
— such as supporting USAID’s Grand
Challenges for Development.
Jonathan Greenblatt
Special assistant to the president and director,
Office of Social Innovation and Civic
Participation in the Domestic Policy Council

9. Feldbaum advances global health and
food security within the NSC. He has
worked in refugee camps and on
mountain rescue teams, holds a
doctoral degree in public health and
served with the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation and the Center for
Strategic International Studies.
Harley Feldbaum
Director for global health, food security and
development, National Security Council
Photo by: Harley Feldbaum

10. Photo by: Robynn Steffen
Steffen has focused as much White
House energy as possible on
innovation for global
development, through prizes and
challenges that link innovators and
entrepreneurs with public policy goals.
Steffen previously served as deputy
chair of the Clinton Global Initiative
Education Working Group.
Robynn Steffen
Assistant director for global
development, Office of Science and
Technology Policy

11. Photo by: Tim Hamilton / CC BY-NC-ND
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