Eric Schwartz currently serves as Professor of Public Affairs and Chair of the Global Policy Area at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. From 2017 to 2022, he was President of the human rights and refugee advocacy group, Refugees International. Prior to that, he served as Dean of the Humphrey School. During the first presidential administration of Barack Obama, Eric was Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration and, prior to that, was the United Nations Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery. From 1993 until 2001, he was on the staff of the National Security Council, ultimately as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs. At the NSC< he managed administration humanitarian responses to crises in East Timor, the Balkans, and Central America, among other places. Earlier in his career, he served as Staff Consultant to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, and as Washington Director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.
Eric received a B.A. from Binghamton University, an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.