Erin M. Barclay

Erin M. Barclay is a career member of the Senior Executive Service and currently serves as the Acting Director in the Office of Civil Rights.  Prior to this position, Erin served concurrently as the Senior Official of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and as Coordinator for Global Democratic Renewal in the Office of the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Human Rights and Democracy.  Prior to these positions, Erin was the Executive Director of the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.  She previously ran INL’s Office of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, as well as INL’s Office of Criminal Justice Assistance and Partnership.  Prior to coming back as INL’s Executive Director, Ms. Barclay served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the International Organization Affairs, and Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations.  She is the recipient of the 2021 President Rank Award, the 2020 F. Allen “Tex” Harris Human Rights Diplomacy Award from the United Nations Association of the National Capitol Region, and numerous State Department performance awards.

Ms. Barclay began her Department of State career in the European Bureau’s Office of Assistance Coordination to Europe and Eurasia.  In 2007 she moved to INL’s Office of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East where she oversaw management of INL programs in over thirty countries.  She later served as the found director of INL’s Office of Criminal Justice Assistance and Partnership which provided strategic, technical expertise and direction to INL’s police, corrections, and rule-of-law programming and policies.  As the PDAS and Acting Assistant Secretary in CSO, Ms. Barclay led all aspects of the Bureau during a period of significant transition.  In the IO Bureau, Ms. Barclay served as the Department’s lead on human rights, refugee, migration and humanitarian relief policy and negotiations at the United Nations and with other international organizations.  In 2018, Ms. Barclay returned to INL as the Bureau’s Executive Director and Controller, where she was responsible for management and oversight of INL’s approximately $1.5 billion in annual foreign assistance appropriations across INL programs in approximately ninety countries around the world. 

Prior to joining the Department, Ms. Barclay was the Executive Director of the Network of East West Women, a non-profit organization that promotes women’s human rights in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Ms. Barclay has been an adjunct professor of international women’s human rights at Georgetown University Law Center and George Mason University. She is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton and the University at Buffalo School of Law, and is an attorney admitted in New York State and the District of Columbia.  She lives with her husband and their two adorable sons.