She was a program officer from the international division of the international organizations of the Ford Foundation. (1974–1981). She was the executive director of the International League for Human Rights (1982–1991), followed by the executive director of the European programs of the United Nations Association of the US (1991–1992). She has been the director of the American Jewish Committee of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights since 1993. In 2010, she was a regents professor in the Department of History of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).