Caryl M. Stern

Caryl M. Stern is the President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Previously, Caryl served as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Associate National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), after a 10-year career in higher education, most recently as Dean of Students at Polytechnic University in New York.

Caryl is a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations International School; the Board of Mercy College; the Board of the WE ARE FAMILY Foundation; and the Advisory Board of the WNBA. She is the co-author of “Hate Hurts: How Children Learn and Unlearn Prejudice” (Scholastic, 2000) and “FUTURE PERFECT: A Model for Professional Development” (NACA, 1987).

In her latest book “I Believe in ZERO: Learning from the World’s Children,” Caryl draws on her travels around the world, offering memorable, first-hand stories that present powerful and sometimes counter-intuitive lessons about life. “I Believe in ZERO” reflects her – and UNICEF’s – mission to reduce the number of children under the age of five who die from preventable causes from 19,000 each day to ZERO.

Caryl has received numerous honors and much recognition for her work, including, Working Mother’s “Most Powerful Moms in Nonprofits” and “25 Mothers We Love” and The Jewish Daily Forward’s “The Forward 50” in 2011, a list of the most impactful Jewish leaders in America. Caryl holds a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Oneonta and a master’s degree from Western Illinois University. She completed the coursework for her PhD at Loyola University of Chicago and was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters from Mercy College in 2012. She is married and has three sons and two grandchildren.