At the Conference

Sarah Craven is an attorney and policy advocate with more than two decades of experience advancing global health, gender equality, and human rights. She serves as Chief of the North American Representation Office of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, where she leads engagement with the U.S. and Canadian governments, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, the media, the private sector, and civil society to advance UNFPA's mission.

Prior to joining UNFPA, Ms. Craven served at the U.S. Department of State and on the legislative staff of U.S. Senators Tim Wirth of Colorado and Spark Matsunaga of Hawaii. She was also a policy advisor to CEDPA during the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

A founding board member of Kakenya's Dream, an innovative girls' leadership organization in western Kenya, Ms. Craven has helped support its growth from a single school to a broader movement advancing education, health, and opportunity for girls.

She holds a B.A. from Macalester College, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Public Interest Law Scholar. In 2020, she was named one of Apolitical's 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy.

William Davis is the Director of the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) in Washington, D.C., where he represents the UN Secretary-General and Secretariat to U.S. policymakers, civil society, media, and the broader public. Appointed in 2024, Mr. Davis brings over three decades of leadership at the intersection of diplomacy, development, and public affairs, both in the United States and internationally.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Davis held senior positions at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including as Director of the OECD Washington Center and Deputy Head of Public Affairs at OECD headquarters in Paris. His career also includes serving as Director of Legislative Affairs at the National Security Council, Senior Adviser in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs, and Executive Director of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. He previously led the UN Development Programme’s Washington Representation Office and consulted for the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council in Geneva.

In addition to his policy and diplomatic work, Mr. Davis was a lecturer at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and remains an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a Master’s in Public Policy and a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Duke University.

Throughout his career, Mr. Davis has championed international cooperation and public engagement with the multilateral system, forging trusted relationships across governments, international organizations, academia, civil society, and the media.

Source: https://unausa.org/will-davis/

James Patton Rogers examines how technological innovation shapes war and power. He is Lecturer in Security and Technology within the Department of War Studies at King's College London and Principal Investigator of the Andrew Carnegie Foundation-funded Crossroads of War project ($1.5m), which seeks to track and counter the proliferation of autonomous weapons to violent non-state actors.

James is the author and editor of four books, including Precision: A History of American Warfare (Manchester University Press, 2023), Drones: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press w/ S.Kreps, 2025), and Rethinking Remote Warfare: AI, Drones, & Future War (Palgrave, w/ J.W.Hutto, 2026). His latest book, War Path: The Rise of Drones and Autonomous Weapons, is under contract with Bonnier (2028). His research has appeared in leading journals, including International Affairs, Contemporary Security Policy, and the European Journal of International Security.

Alongside his academic research, James advises governments and international organisations on emerging technologies and international security. His work with the United Nations Security Council has contributed to international efforts to prevent the proliferation of advanced drones and robotics to violent non-state actors, including the Delhi Declaration (2022) and Abu Dhabi Principles (2024). Between 2026 and 2028, this work will continue under Crossroads of War, with the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, Conflict Armament Research, Cornell, and Syracuse, focused on autonomous weapons.

James is a TEDx speaker and regularly writes for The Washington Post, TIME, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. His work has informed investigations by The New York Times, NPR, CBS's 60 Minutes, and the BBC. He has also appeared as a commentator or presenter for CNN, Netflix, PBS, and the History Channel. Between 2020 and 2024, he hosted the History Hit Warfare podcast, which ran for more than 400 episodes and reached over 12.7m listens in over 180 countries. 

Source: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/james-patton-rogers