Deborah Housen-Couriel Director, Wexner Israel Fellowship Program
Deborah Housen-Couriel has served as the Director of the Israel Fellowship Program since 2006. She is a graduate of Class XII of the Program, having received a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government as a Wexner Fellow in 2000-2001.
Prior to this position, she headed the team for analysis of Middle East regional issues at the Reut Institute; and served for 12 years as an attorney in the Legal Bureau and the Bureau of the Director-General in Israel's Ministry of Communications. A specialist in international law, she has served as legal adviser for delegations to the World Trade Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the negotiations on the Oslo Accords, and those for the peace treaty with Jordan. Deborah has taught courses at several law faculties in Israel and has published research on a variety of legal issues, as well as media articles on current issues of Israeli public policy.
Deborah serves on the board of Push for Success, an Israeli non-profit based on volunteers who give a "push" to less-advantaged children by tutoring them within the framework of the public school system; and on the board of Kehillat Tsur Hadassah for Progressive Judaism in Tsur Hadassah. She is a member of the Israel Branch of the International Women's Forum.
She received her B.A. in History and Anthropology summa cum laude from Wellesley College and the Ecole de Sciences Politiques in Paris; and her LL.B. and LL.M. cum laude from Hebrew University.
Ms. Housen-Couriel, her husband Lior and their four children Romy, Noam, Yair and Ely live in Tsur Hadassah, south of Jerusalem.