Joel Hellman became Dean of the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in July 2015 after 25 years working on some of the most complex issues of governance, conflict and the political economy of development. He served at the World Bank in many senior roles including Chief Institutional Economist, Director of the Center for Conflict, Security and Development in Nairobi, Kenya where he led the Bank’s engagement with fragile and conflict-affected states around the world, and Coordinator of the Bank’s response in Indonesia to the devastating Asian Tsunami. He was the Senior Political Counselor at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. As a scholar, Dr. Hellman was a political science professor at Harvard University and Columbia University focusing on the politics of economic reform.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he is a graduate of Williams College. He has a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a M.Phil. from Oxford University.