Toni Verstandig is currently the Executive Vice President at The S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. Prior to this role, she served as Chair of the Aspen Institute's Middle East Programs. At Aspen she oversaw the Secretariat for the recently launched Partners for New Beginning (PNB) a public-private partnership that deepens engagement between the United States and local communities on issues of economic opportunity, science & technology, education, and exchange in 10 countries from North Africa to Indonesia. Aspen Middle East programs also includes a dialogue with the UAE, a Lebanon program, the North Africa Partnership for Economic Opportunity (NAPEO), and the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership (UPP), which promotes economic opportunities for the Palestinian people through a public-private partnership, in order to support progress toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian people.
From November 1994 until January 2001, Ms. Verstandig served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Near Eastern Affairs at the US Department of State. In this capacity, she directed and coordinated U.S. bilateral relations and overall policy development concerning Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula. Ms. Verstandig also served on the Arab-Israeli Peace Team.
Ms. Verstandig is a graduate of Boston University and Stephens College. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She serves on the Executive Committee of Children's National Medical Center, the Board of the University of Denver Korbel School for International Affairs, the National Advisory Board for the Catholic Center for the Study of the Holocaust, the Board of Trustees of the American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center, and that of the Center for Global Development. Ms. Verstandig is married, and they have one son.