Human Rights Institute Distinguished Fellows
Distinguished Fellows are senior human rights lawyers, academics, and activists who bring a wealth of diverse perspectives and experience to our team. They consult with faculty, attend courses and colloquia, guest lecture, and contribute to publications. We invite students to engage with our Distinguished Fellows during their time here and join us for our series of lunch & learns about their work and careers.
Scott Busby has spent more than 30 years working on human rights, refugee, and migration issues, serving in a variety of positions with the U.S. government and international organizations.
Scott has a distinguished career of public service in human rights. For the last decade, he has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State, where he has overseen at various times the bureau’s work on the East Asia and the Pacific region, Africa, the Western Hemisphere, multilateral issues, business and human rights, labor issues, and human rights-based sanctions.
García Muñoz has a distinguished record of research, education, and advocacy on the rights of women, LGBTQ people, Afro descendent and indigenous communities, as well as extensive human rights experience in the European, Inter-American and United Nations systems. In 2017, she was elected as the first ever Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (REDESCA), a position she held for six years.
Hamayon Hamed has more than 15 years of experience teaching law and human rights at Kabul Public University and at several private universities in Afghanistan. He has also worked as a legal consultant with an international organization, led a legal aid non-governmental organization as its Executive Director, and served as Commissioner of the Afghanistan Anti-Corruption Commission (AACC). As a Distinguished Fellow with the Human Rights Institute, Hamayon will continue his research on violations of the rights of children by law enforcement officials in Afghanistan, as well as on corruption in legal aid service providers in Afghanistan.
Wade McMullen is a human rights lawyer and organizational leader with nearly two decades of experience working in service of social justice movements across the United States, Latin America, and Africa.
Bob Muse is a partner at Levy Firestone Muse LLP and one of Washington’s leading trial lawyers. A fixture of the D.C. legal community for many years, Bob has represented clients in some of the highest profile civil, criminal and congressional matters.
Diann Rust-Tierney is a national legal and legislative policy advocate with more than 40 years of experience developing, coordinating, and implementing policy and culture change to advance civil and human rights. She has led efforts to develop a coordinated state and federal strategy to reduce support for and end capital punishment in the US.
