The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

Jacqueline Corcoran is NDI’s resident senior director in Bangladesh. Before joining the Institute in 2007, she spent a career in senior policy and management positions in the legislative and executive branches of government.

Most recently, Ms. Corcoran served as staff director to the House whip in the Florida Legislature, special counsel to the Florida attorney general, and deputy director for Economic Policy to the governor of Florida. Earlier, she spent a decade in Washington, D.C., five years as principal foreign policy advisor and then chief of staff to U.S. Congressman Tom Campbell, and five years as a federal prosecutor working with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Corcoran has traveled in professional and personal capacities to more than 40 countries throughout Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. She has advised countries in transition to democracy in Africa and Asia, assisted in organizing the first U.S.-Ireland Business Summit in Washington, D.C., led Congressional staff delegations to Africa and China, lectured at Georgetown University to emerging women leaders from developing nations, and served for 10 years as a trustee with Freedom From Hunger, an NGO that brings access to credit and health education to poor women worldwide.

Ms. Corcoran earned her law degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center (now University of New Hampshire Law School) in Concord, N.H., having earlier graduated with a double degree in French and public relations/advertising from Florida Southern College. She is a member of the Florida and District of Columbia Bar Associations and the Women's Foreign Policy Group.