1. Carl Gershman was born on July 20,1943 and served from 1984 to 2021 as the founding president of the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, congressionally-funded, grant-making institution that supports non-governmental groups working for democracy around the world.
Carl Gershman was a resident scholar at Freedom House and executive director of Social Democrats, USA.
Carl Gershman was born into a Jewish family in New York City on July 20,1943.
From 1965 to 1967, Carl Gershman served with Volunteers in Service to America in Pittsburgh, which was a domestic version of the Peace Corps.
From 1969 to 1974, Carl Gershman served as director of research, co-chairman, and executive director of the Youth Committee for Peace in the Middle East, where he edited the organization's magazine Crossroads.
In 1972, Carl Gershman and Irving Howe edited a collection, Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East.
Carl Gershman served on the editorial board of Dissent magazine, which was edited by Howe.
At the Socialist Party USA convention in December 1972, Carl Gershman introduced the international program, which was approved by a two to one vote; the losing alternative, proposed by Michael Harrington, called for an immediate withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam, while the majority resolution called for a negotiated peace settlement.
In 1975, Carl Gershman published a monograph on the foreign policy of the American labor movement.
From 1975 to January 1980, Carl Gershman served as executive director of SDUSA.
Carl Gershman served as the US ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council during the first term of the Reagan Administration.
In 1984, Carl Gershman was appointed president of the National Endowment for Democracy.
In 2021, Carl Gershman was the subject of a hoax by Russian comedians Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, who convinced Carl Gershman and other NED officials they were speaking remotely to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader, and an aide.