Senator Timothy E. Wirth named as the 2008 Jill and Ken Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecturer
Timothy Wirth is president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund. These organizations were founded in 1998 through a major financial commitment from Ted Turner to support and strengthen the work of the United Nations. Prior to this, Wirth spent more than 20 years in the United States Congress, representing Colorado both in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Wirth then served in the U.S. Department of State as the first Undersecretary for Global Affairs from 1993 to 1997. He is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a PhD from Stanford University.
During his Senate term he played a key role in the conception and passage of landmark environmental legislation and pioneered the process of trading emissions for mitigating acid rain, which was incorporated into the ColoradoWilderness Act. He was responsible for introducing the first significant proposal in Congress regarding climate change.
In the State Department he was responsible for coordinating U. S. foreign policy in the areas of refugees, population, environment, science, human rights, and narcotics, and played a key role in both organizing the Cairo International Conference on Population and negotiating the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
As president of the UN Foundation since its inception, Wirth has organized and led the formulation of the Foundation's mission and program priorities, which include the environment, women and population, children's health and peace, security and human rights.