Baroness Valerie Amos, CH

Baroness Valerie Amos is the Master of University College at Oxford University, a position she has held since 2020. She was appointed a Labour Party life peer in 1997 and was the first black woman to serve in a British Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development. She went on to become Leader of the House of Lords. She has consistently sustained an interest in and commitment to issues of equality and social justice. Baroness Amos’ career spanned local and national government in the UK as well as global leadership in her role as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs at the United Nations. Baroness Amos also served as the UK High Commissioner to Australia and worked extensively in South Africa between 1994 and 1998.

Her work in the voluntary and charitable sectors, as well as in non-governmental organizations, has gone hand in hand with her policy and political work. In addition to being a patron of the Amos Bursary, Baroness Amos sits on the boards of the Mastercard Foundation, the UN Foundation, the International Peace Institute, and Mission 44. She is also a member of the advisory board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and serves as a board member of the Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative.