New York, NY, September 17, 2024 — Carnegie Corporation of New York announces the appointment of Stephen J. Del Rosso as vice president of the International Program, effective January 1, 2025. Del Rosso will succeed Deana Arsenian, who is retiring after nearly three decades of service.
Del Rosso will be responsible for the strategy and focus of the International Program’s grantmaking in support of international peace and security and higher education and research in Africa. The program disburses about $60 million per year in philanthropic funds, making Carnegie one of the largest private funders working in areas such as nuclear nonproliferation, U.S.-China relations, Russian studies, and African higher education.
“On behalf of our trustees and staff, I would like to thank Deana for her outstanding intellectual leadership and indefatigable efforts to build a more secure, peaceful, and prosperous world,” said Dame Louise Richardson, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York and former head of the University of Oxford. “I am confident that as the new vice president of the International Program, Steve will bring the strategic vision, commitment, and foreign policy experience needed to address our most critical global issues, not least the political polarization that undermines foreign policy decisions and the country’s standing internationally.”
Del Rosso started at the foundation in 1999 as a senior program officer in the International Peace and Security Program, after a decade in the U.S. Foreign Service and appointments at the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (now the Chicago Council on Global Affairs). Del Rosso managed the New Dimensions of Security subprogram, which built on the foundation’s previous support for the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, before being promoted to, successively, program chair, program director, and senior program director. Del Rosso also developed the foundation’s work on Asian security, peacebuilding in Africa, bridging the academic-policy gap, Track II with Iran and North Korea, and quantum and international relations.
“It is an honor for me to build on the foundation’s rich legacy and apply my experience with philanthropy, nongovernmental organizations, and government to help the International Program continue addressing some of the world’s most important and vexing challenges,” said Del Rosso. “With Dame Louise at the helm, the foundation is poised to further advance Andrew Carnegie’s founding vision of a more peaceful and secure world in an increasingly challenging 21st-century context.”
Deana Arsenian began her career at the foundation in 1983 as a research assistant for then-President David Hamburg, as he was developing a new program area on Avoiding Nuclear War with an emphasis on improving U.S.-Soviet relations. She rose to become a key member of the foundation, serving in the roles of program assistant, officer, and chair, before she was appointed vice president of the International Program in 2007. Arsenian also directed the foundation’s Euro-Atlantic Security subprogram and is especially recognized for the foundation’s efforts to improve the understanding of Russia by expanding the research, analysis, training, and public understanding of issues that impact U.S.-Russia relations and practitioners.
“From the time I joined the foundation as a graduate student at Columbia University, I have dedicated myself to improving U.S.-Russia relations to avoid conflict between the two main nuclear superpowers,” said Arsenian. “Given the current state of this relationship, it is clearly a work in progress. Under Steve’s leadership, the foundation will have other new opportunities to influence the course of international affairs, including between and among nuclear powers.”
In addition, the International Program welcomed two new members in September:
Omotade (Tade) Akin Aina returns to Carnegie Corporation of New York as its new senior program director of the Higher Education and Research in Africa subprogram. Aina served as program director of the Higher Education and Libraries in Africa program at Carnegie from 2008 to 2014. He was most recently chief impact and research officer at the Mastercard Foundation.
James McKeon joins the foundation as a program officer in the International Peace and Security program, managing the program’s Nuclear Security subprogram. McKeon served as a senior program officer at the Nuclear Threat Initiative prior to joining the foundation.
About Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today, the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace.
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