CSPC Advisor
College Grants Writer, Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA)
Former CSP Vice President and Dean of Fellows
Rob Henderson writes grant proposals, teaches U.S. foreign policy, and advises on the development of international programming. He is a seasoned international education leader with a proven track record of organizational development. An educator, a manager of small and large teams, and a field organizer in 44 countries, Rob is an Africanist by training and an expert on social and political change in the developing world. He has written and consulted extensively on the management and organization of election commissions, non-governmental organizations, and political parties in transitional democracies and has made original contributions to civil society in Albania, Angola, Bolivia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Colombia, Grenada, Guatemala, Hungary, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines, Romania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
Rob Henderson is the College Grants Writer for the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) and has been responsible for a doubling of grant related income for the College since 2007. He recently led a small team that won a $2m grant from the State Department for international exchange and education of under privileged and underserved students from the developing world. He serves on the Classified Staff Professional Development Committee for the College and on the Global Studies Committee.
From September 2006 to April 2007 he served as the Executive Director of 40Plus of Greater Washington, a 53 year old, all-volunteer non- profit organization dedicated to job search skill training and career development strategies for professionals over the age of 40. Under Rob’s leadership 40Plus opened strategic initiatives with the community of international financial institutions, the federal government and major non-profit organizations to bring new members into the organization. Over 8,000 alumni form a powerful network of professionals working in all fields in the D.C. area that support new graduates. 40Plus continues to refine its unique training curriculum to develop new directions for seasoned professionals.
From July of 2002 until July of 2006, Rob Henderson served as the Dean of Fellows and Director of Public Service for the Center for the Study of the Presidency. He quadrupled the budget and doubled the size of the program in four years. Rob helped launch the scholarship/fellowship drive which resulted in 38 new funded fellowships for students from the top research and liberal arts institutions and the service academies. Rob also organized the first meetings of the Iraq Afghanistan Study Group.
In December of 2005, Rob was promoted to Vice President of the Center and given responsibility for surveying the public diplomacy of the executive branch of the federal government to advise the Foundation for International Understanding (FIU). The FIU is a Congressional initiative to strengthen all media on behalf of cross-cultural communications. This independent, non partisan, quasi-nongovernmental entity will catalyze cross-cultural communications through financial grants to U.S. and foreign producers. Rob now serves as an Advisor to the Center for the Study of the Presidency.
From 1998 to 2002, Rob was Vice President of The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars concentrating on building relations with the federal government and institutional relations with over 1,000 colleges and universities. Prior to The Washington Center he served from 1994 to 1997 as Senior Manager for the Humphrey Fellowship Program of the Institute of International Education. The Humphrey Program is a mid-career federally funded Fellowship for rising policy professionals from developing countries. Rob managed Fellows, edited program publications, organized the regional selection committees, and worked closely with host Universities.
From 1993 to 1994, and 1996, Rob was the United Nations Development Programme Chief Technical Advisor for Electoral Processes to the Republic of Uganda. From 1984 to 1992, he served as the Vice President for Programs of the International Republican Institute of the National Endowment for Democracy building democratic transition institutions on four continents. He observed, managed, or provided technical assistance in 25 international elections. From 1981 to 1984, Rob served in the State Department as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs and in the Counselor’s Office as the Director of Sports preparing for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. From 1977 to 1980, he was a Research Fellow in Third World Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Rob has also taught a collegiate course on U.S. foreign policy and democratic development at The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars since 1979. The current class, U.S. Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: the Dynamics of Change presents case studies in national security and democratic development in troubled countries and regions and requires undergraduates to write original policy papers.
He graduated from Harvard College in 1972 with a B.A. in Government and holds a 1980 M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is the father of Rachel Claire Henderson and Diana Elizabeth Henderson and lives in Arlington, Virginia with Leilani H. Henderson.
