Carl Gershman (born July 20, 1943) is an American civil servant who served as the president of the National Endowment for Democracy since its founding in 1984 until 2021. Gershman previously served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council during the first term of the Reagan Administration. Gershman was the executive director of the Social Democrats, USA from 1975 to 1980, having previously been an officer of the Young People's Socialist League. From 1965 to 1967, he served in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Volunteers in Service to America (now AmeriCorps VISTA). He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. Early life On July 20, 1943, Carl Gershman was born into a Jewish family in New York City. In 1961, he graduated magna cum laude from Horace Mann Preparatory School of Riverdale in The Bronx. As an undergraduate at Yale University, he was active in the Yale Civil Rights Council, and volunteered in Mississippi and Alabama. In 1965 he graduated magna cum laude from Yale, with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and upon graduation was inducted into the honorary society Phi Beta Kappa. From 1965 to 1967, he served in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Volunteers in Service to America, which was a domestic version of the Peace Corps. In 1968 he graduated with a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Career Early years In 1968, he worked in the research department of B'nai B'rith. From 1969 to 1971, he was Research Director at the A. Philip Randolph Institute, where he assisted its director, Bayard Rustin. Youth Committee for Peace in the Middle East (1969–1974) From 1969 to 1974, Gershman successively served as director of research, co-Chairman, and executive director of the Youth Committee for Peace in the Middle East, and edited its magazine Crossroads. In 1972 he served on the Governing Council of the American Jewish Committee. In 1972 he and Irving Howe edited a collection, Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East. Gershman served on the Editorial Board of Dissent, which was edited by Howe. American social democracy: YPSL and SDUSA (1974–1980) In a 2006 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Gershman said, "I have to confess that, in my early youth, I was a kind of a social democrat of sorts; I'm now really a democrat; I'm non-partisan." From 1970–1974, Carl Gershman was a national leader