Kimber Shearer serves as Executive Vice President of the International Republican Institute (IRI), an international non-profit organization that advances democracy and freedom around the world. She also serves as in house legal counsel. Shearer previously served as Vice President for Strategy and Development and Counsel where she led IRI’s organization-wide strategic planning, business development and strategic partnerships, and oversaw IRI’s Center for Global Impact. Shearer previously served as IRI’s director for governance, deputy director for Latin America and the Caribbean, and deputy director for Asia.
Prior to joining IRI, Kimber held numerous positions at the U.S. Department of State and was a presidential management fellow from 2001-2003. She was a foreign affairs officer in the office of European Union and regional affairs, where she was responsible for managing relations with the EU on selected global issues. Prior to that, Shearer worked in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, where she developed and coordinated U.S. foreign policy on democracy, rule of law and the protection of human rights; monitored human rights abuses in foreign countries and consulted with foreign governments on how to improve human rights; drafted advisory opinions and consulted with immigration judges and officials at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice on asylum applications and torture convention cases. Shearer also served on three overseas assignments. In Georgia, she served as the acting Deputy Political Counselor. In The Hague, she worked in the Office of the Legal Counsel where she coordinated with investigators and prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia and other international tribunals. In Azerbaijan, she served as the acting Deputy Public Affairs Officer.
Shearer served as co-chair of the democracy, rights and governance working group on the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA) from 2019-2021.
She earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law, and a B.A. in Political Science from LaSalle University. She is a member of the Maryland Bar.