Ashley Quarcoo

Ashley Quarcoo is a nonresident scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Democracy, Conflict and Governance Program. She is also the senior director for democracy programs and pillars with the Partnership for American Democracy.  

Quarcoo was previously a senior fellow at Carnegie where her research focused on threats to democracy, social and political polarization, and comparative approaches toward building social cohesion and democratic renewal.  She also previously served as Senior Research Manager with the Aspen Institute’s Citizenship and American Identity Program.

Quarcoo spent over a decade supporting peacebuilding and democratic development in post-conflict countries and countries transitioning out of authoritarianism.  She previously worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) where she supported strategy, policy, and program development for a nearly $300 million democracy, human rights, and governance foreign assistance portfolio. In this role, she helped to lead major U.S. Government responses to political transitions in Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and South Sudan.  Between assignments at USAID, Quarcoo served at the State Department, leading the development of U.S. strategy for United Nations peace operations in Sudan and South Sudan.  As a Presidential Management Fellow from 2008 to 2010, Quarcoo served as a legislative aide to Congresswoman Nita Lowey, supporting the State and Foreign Operations portfolio, and also served on the Haiti Task Team following the 2010 earthquake. Prior to government service, Quarcoo worked on access to justice and human rights in Africa, including for the Carter Center and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation based in South Africa.

Quarcoo was a visiting fellow with the SNF Agora Institute in 2020, a 2019-2020 Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and a 2014-2019 Council on Foreign Relations Term Member.  She serves on the Advisory Board of Global Kids.