Heather Hwalek

Heather Yang Hwalek is a Trip Director at the Gates Foundation, where she advises the President of Global Growth & Opportunity on international affairs, communications, policy, and government relations, and leads execution of complex global engagements. She has held various positions at the Gates Foundation since 2020. Before joining the Gates Foundation, Heather spent over a decade with the U.S. Department of State Department, serving as an aide in the Office of the Secretary of State, a Political-Military Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Vice Consul at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, Pickering Fellow at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, and other positions in Washington, DC. She later served as an Advance Associate for First Lady Jill Biden in the Biden-Harris White House and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Heather holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Columbia University. A Seattle resident, she also serves on the boards of OneWorld Now! and the Pike Place Market Foundation, and is a past Fellow of the World Affairs Council of Seattle.