Michele Sumilas

Michele Sumilas is a nonresident senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at Brookings. She also serves as the national engagement director at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a coalition that works across the country to strengthen America’s role in the world through support for diplomacy and international assistance.

Prior to January 2025, Sumilas served as acting deputy administrator for management and resources at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she ensured alignment of operations and resources with policy and development priorities. She previously served as assistant to the administrator of the Bureau for Planning, Learning and Resource Management (PLR), which provided the agency’s policy voice and leadership in interagency forums to better align budgetary considerations, planning processes, implementation discipline, and monitoring and evaluation with development and humanitarian priorities.

Earlier, she served as executive director of Bread for the World, an anti-hunger Christian advocacy organization. Her prior government experience includes serving as chief of staff and deputy chief of staff for USAID, and as staff to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations. She also worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Health Council.