Tirana Hassan

Tirana Hassan is chief executive officer of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) USA. A lawyer, social worker, and non-profit leader, she has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of humanitarian action, human rights, and international policy in conflict and crisis settings around the world. 

Throughout her career, Hassan has worked alongside communities affected by war, displacement, and political violence, while leading organizations responding to some of the world’s most complex humanitarian emergencies. Before joining MSF USA, she served as executive director of Human Rights Watch and previously held senior leadership roles at Amnesty International, as well at UNICEF, Save the Children, and MSF in field operations throughout Asia and Africa. 

Hassan’s work focuses on the future of humanitarian action and nonprofit leadership in an era of geopolitical fragmentation, shrinking civic space, and growing challenges to international law. She writes and speaks on humanitarian leadership, women’s leadership, protecting civilians in conflict, safeguarding humanitarian principles, accountability for atrocities, organizational resilience and the role of mission-driven organizations in an increasingly contested global landscape. Drawing on extensive operational and executive leadership experience, she brings a practitioner’s perspective to questions of global governance, international cooperation, and institutional leadership.