Molly Hayes Baril works at the intersection of local and international policy. She serves as the special advisor for global engagement at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, based in Minneapolis. She is also a public speaker on U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy, refugee resettlement, and the politics of the Middle East, North Africa, and East Africa.

As a foreign policy advisor with the U.S. Department of State from 2008-2014, Molly served as the Department’s desk officer for Morocco, Western Sahara, and Tunisia in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs; desk officer for Kenya in the Bureau of African Affairs; and regional advisor for East Africa and staff assistant to the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. She also served as a deputy coordinator of the Department’s Egypt Task Force during the 2011 Arab Spring. Since returning to her home state, she has served as program director at the International Institute of Minnesota, where she led education and workforce development initiatives for newly-arrived refugees, and as deputy chief of staff and speechwriter to the president of the University of Minnesota, where her portfolio included finance, operations, development, and international policies and programs. 

Molly holds an MPA from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, a graduate certificate in international relations from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and a BA in English and Arabic from the University of Notre Dame. She is an advanced speaker of Arabic and lived in Cairo, Egypt from 2006 to 2007. Molly is a 2020-2025 Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Fun Fact: Molly is a visual artist (watercolor, pen and ink) who first got interested in Arabic because of her love of calligraphy and Middle Eastern artistic traditions. Donate to support North Minneapolis and support Black artists in the Twin Cities.