Former Secretary of the Board and Executive Committee

Senior Advisor, McLarty Associates



Teresita C. Schaffer was formerly the secretary of The Asia Foundation’s board of trustees. She joined the board of trustees in 2008, and previously served as secretary of the board of trustees and chair of the Trusteeship Committee from 2014 to 2016. She writes and speaks on economic, political, security and risk management trends in India and Pakistan, as well as on the region that extends from Afghanistan through Bangladesh. She is a Senior Adviser to McLarty Associates, a Washington-based international strategic advisory firm.

In a 30-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Schaffer was recognized as one of the State Department’s leading experts on South Asia, where she spent a total of 11 years. Her other career focus was on international economic issues. She served in U.S. embassies in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, and from 1992-95 as U.S. Ambassador in Sri Lanka. During her assignments in the State Department in Washington, she was Director of the Office of International Trade and later Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and South Asia, at that time the senior South Asia policy position in the State Department. Her most recent book, co-authored with Howard Schaffer, is India at the Global High Table.