Eileen Shields-West served as a correspondent of TIME Magazine and San Francisco Bureau Chief for TIME. She has reported for CBS, CNN, and NPR, and written a book on political campaigns called "The World Almanac of Political Campaigns" (1992). Ms. Shields-West also edited and contributed to "Choosing the Right Educational Path for Your Child" (2008), a book on 21st-century schools. She is chair emeritus of Refugees International, a leading non-profit organization that advocates for refugees and the internally displaced; she traveled to such places as Darfur, South Sudan, Rwanda, the Congo, Thailand Bangladesh, and Cambodia to advocate on refugee issues. She is currently chair of the board of The SEED Foundation, which is responsible for setting up the first public charter boarding school in the nation. Shields-West also sits on the board of IREX, Fairwinds – Nantucket’s Counseling Center, and is a member of Georgetown University’s MSFS Advisory Board. She volunteers as a Bookpal in D.C. public schools. She holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.