The United States Senate recently confirmed Brandeis donor Elaine Schuster as the country’s delegate to the 64th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The appointment is an unpaid position lasting one year beginning in September. Representatives serve as experts sharing their views and advice in specific areas.

Schuster and her husband Gerald have donated five million dollars over eight years to the creation and maintenance of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis. Schuster also serves on the National Board of the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center.

Schuster told Florence Graves, the director of the Schuster Institute of Investigative Journalism, that she plans to focus on international issues pertaining to women.

“Elaine Schuster told me that, as a Public Delegate for the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, she is particularly interested in working on the enormous problem of modern-day slavery and sex trafficking” Graves wrote in an e-mail to The Hoot.

Graves added, “[Schuster] is very savvy about the media and extremely well-informed about politics…Schuster’s appointment by President Obama as a Public Delegate to the United Nations, which required Senate approval, has been approved by the Senate, is a wonderful recognition of her longstanding commitment to social justice and human rights.”

President Obama nominated Schuster along with eight other individuals on Sept. 22.

“I am grateful for the willingness of these fine individuals to serve my administration and am confident that they will represent our nation well. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years,” Obama said of his appointees.

Schuster previously served on the President’s Advisory Committee for the Arts for eight years. She is also very active in the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

~By Destiny D. Aquino