Marti Flacks

Senior Advisor

Former Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council and Former Deputy Director of the Office of Energy Programs at the U.S. State Department

Marti Flacks is a senior fellow and Director of the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Marti spent more than a decade working at the intersection of governance, economic, and human rights issues in the U.S. government. She served as Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) from 2015-17, where she coordinated U.S. policy across East and Southern Africa and on continent-wide trade and economic issues. Prior to the NSC, Marti was Deputy Director of the Office of Energy Programs at the U.S. State Department, leading the department’s policy work and foreign assistance programs on energy transparency and governance. She spent four years working for the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan on implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the independence of South Sudan. Marti joined the U.S. government through the President Management Fellowship program, where she served at the Department of Homeland Security.

Following her government service, Marti was the Deputy Director & Head of the North America Office at the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, a human rights organization focused on the role of business in respecting human rights. Marti earned her B.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University, a master’s degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.