Anita Ramasastry

Anita is an expert in the fields of business and human rights, anti-corruption and commercial law and development.

She is the Roland Hijorth Professor of Law and Director of the Sustainable International Development Graduate Program at the University of Washington School of Law.

She is also a commissioner and chair of the Washington state delegation and the President Elect of the national Uniform Law Commission, where she oversaw the drafting of a new law focused on prevention of and remedies for human trafficking, for the 50 states.

Between 2009-2012, Anita served as a senior adviser to the Assistant Secretary of Market Access and Compliance in the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the US Department of Commerce, working under the leadership of then Secretary Gary Locke.

She directed the ITA anti-corruption and trade effort, and helped to launch new initiatives with the G20, APEC and the OSCE.

She also coordinated trade strategies with new emerging markets, such as Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, South Africa and Saudi Arabia, and developed a new business and human rights curriculum for US trade officers in their embassies worldwide.

Anita has served as a staff attorney at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an associate attorney at the law firm White & Case in Budapest, and has been a visiting professor and Atlantic Fellow in Public Policy at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary Westfield College in London.