Distinguished Visiting Fellow Thilmeeza Hussain

Thilmeeza Hussain has been ambassador and permanent representative of the Maldives to the United Nations and non-resident high commissioner to Canada since 2019. Alongside these roles, she is co-chair of the Circle of Women Ambassadors to the UN, leads the preparatory committee for the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States, and is coordinator of the Gender Advisory Board of the president of the 77th UN General Assembly. From 2019 to 2022, Hussain served as ambassador of the Maldives to the United States. Prior to these diplomatic appointments, she was an adjunct professor of sustainability at Ramapo College’s School of Social Sciences and Human Services. From 2009 to 2012, Hussain was the deputy permanent representative of the Maldives to the UN, working on issues including gender, climate change, and sustainable development, but resigned after a coup d’état that overthrew her country’s first democratically elected government. Hussain holds a master’s degree in business management from Colorado Technical University and a bachelor’s degree from Murdoch University.