Ms.Schmemann is director of the Task Force program and also director of communications and marketing at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Council’s Task Force program convenes bipartisan groups to assess issues of current importance to U.S. foreign policy. Led by prominent chairs and including respected experts, Independent Task Forces aim to reach a meaningful consensus on policy. Ms. Schmemann has overseen recent Task Forces on Latin America, global climate change, nuclear weapons, and immigration policies. She is currently engaged in projects examining challenges on the Korean peninsula and in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Previously, Ms. Schmemann managed communications at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and coordinated Harvard’s Caspian Studies Program. She also managed a research project and edited a three-volume study on Russian security issues at the East West Institute in New York City. She was formerly assistant director of the Council’s Center for Preventive Action, focusing on the Balkans and Central Asia.

Ms. Schmemann received her BA in Government and her MA in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies from Harvard University. She grew up abroad and currently lives in Bethesda with her husband Eric Lohr, a professor of Russian history at American University, and their two sons.