Colette Rausch is an Associate Vice President for USIP. Her focus is on criminal justice and police reform initiatives that have included missions and projects in Afghanistan, Guatemala, Kosovo, Liberia, Nicaragua, Peru, Nepal, Burma, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen. Before joining the Institute, she worked at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission in Kosovo, serving first as head of the rule of law division and then as director of the department of human rights and rule of law.
Previously, Rausch was with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), serving as the DOJ’s resident legal adviser in Hungary and later in Bosnia. In Hungary, she worked on the development of a crime task force. She also served as the DOJ program manager for Central and East Europe, establishing criminal justice development and training projects in Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and Macedonia. In addition to her international assignments, Rausch was a federal prosecutor with the DOJ in Las Vegas, Nevada, working in both the white collar and violent crime units. Before joining DOJ, she was with the state of Nevada’s Attorney General’s Office, where she was director of the telemarketing and consumer fraud unit. She also served as an assistant federal public defender in Nevada. A recipient of numerous DOJ performance and special achievement awards, Rausch received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nevada, Reno and a juris doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law.