Carla Koppell

Koppell's edited volume, Untapped Power: Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion for Conflict and Development, was published by Oxford University Press in February 2022. The volume brings together 40 leaders, practitioners, and academics in the field of international relations from 6 continents and over 20 countries to discuss how diversity and inclusion are actually essential to ending global conflict and promoting social and economic well-being worldwide. Contributors to the volume include Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee, former President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga, Afghan women's rights activist Wazhma Frogh, and professor of law and expert member on the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Valmaine Toki. Lakshitha Saji Prelis, Director of Child and Youth Programs at Search for Common Ground, Joshua Castellino, Executive Director at Minority Rights Group International, Katia Papagianni, Director of Mediation Support and Policy at Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Charlie Damon, Pacific Regional Program Manager at CARE Australia, and Sayed Ikram Afzali, Executive Director at Integrity Watch Afghanistan, are also contributors. The volume covers major movements for inclusion, including the movements for gender equality and women's empowerment, youth, peace and security, LGBTQ+ rights, disability inclusion, indigenous people's rights, and the rights of ethnic, religious, and linguistic minority communities. Untapped Power discusses the importance of the inclusion of these diverse and marginalized communities in peace mediation and negotiation processes, security sector forces, transitional justice, development, justice systems, and civil society, among other areas.

Koppell has worked internationally across the public, private and non-governmental sectors. On August 25, 2021, the White House announced her as the Biden administration's nominee for assistant administrator for development, democracy, and innovation at the United States Agency for International Development. On September 21, 2021, the nomination was sent to the United States Senate for confirmation. Koppell's nomination garnered coverage across in political media outlets and trade publications. Her nomination was officially withdrawn on April 7, 2022.

Koppell has commented in interviews that emphasizing diversity and inclusion issues in international development efforts is both morally correct and conducive to stability and development. She has suggested, for instance, that the Oslo Accords would have been more supportive of community integrity had women been involved in negotiations. In 2020, she and Melanne Verveer criticized a deal struck between the U.S. Government and the Taliban regarding American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, on the grounds that negotiations had not been inclusive of women. Koppell has edited a book on diversity, equity, and inclusion in international affairs called Untapped Power: Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion for Conflict and Development, which was published by Oxford University Press in February 2022.

She obtained a bachelor's degree in communications at Cornell University in 1988. In 1992, she received a master's degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Carla Ravi Koppell (born November 18, 1966) is an American academic who works as a senior advisor and distinguished fellow with the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where she leads the University Leadership Council on Diversity and Inclusion in International Affairs. In that role, she works with deans of graduate schools of public policy and international affairs to incorporate attention to diversity and inclusion in their curricula and programs. In July 2020, she was reported to be leading a policy working group on international women's and girls' issues for the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign.