Senior Policy Director and Head of Political Risk, Dentons

Anne MacDonald Grace is senior policy director and head of political risk at Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, and a senior advisor to Harvard’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative and the enter on Conflict Development at Texas A&M University. For over two decades, she has worked across government, international development, and the private sector in leading stabilization, reconstruction, and crisis response efforts. Her career spans work on fragile and post-conflict environments, from Afghanistan and Iraq, to Haiti and Burma, as well as strategic counsel to governments, multilateral institutions, and global corporations navigating complex political landscapes.

At Dentons and previously at Edelman Global Advisory, Anne has led political risk practices for the world’s largest law and communications firms, advising multinational companies on how to anticipate, manage, and publicly position themselves amid political upheaval, regulatory change, and humanitarian crises. Drawing from her early experiences at the White House, State Department, and Pentagon, she designs and implements strategies that help clients align strategic risk management with compelling public narratives that enable continued operation in volatile and highly politicized settings. Anne led Edelman’s global teams providing corporate counsel through the Russia-Ukraine conflict and COVID-19 pandemic, and led Dentons advisory through the 2025 presidential transition.

Anne’s foundation in stabilization and reconstruction is rooted in her service at the U.S. Department of Defense, where she served as a Defense Fellow supporting post-conflict recovery and economic development efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. She then served as the White House’s liaison to non-profits and foundations following Hurricane Katrina, and led the first-ever disaster response exercise for the private sector and federal government agencies. In her work prior to and following Haiti’s 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, she built partnerships with international donors, securing new funding streams, and advanced community health and education programs for GHESKIO Centers – a leading organization in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Anne continued to work on long term recovery efforts in Haiti through the decade following the earthquake, supporting President Bush’s involvement with the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, and advising on education and investment initiatives.

As chief of staff to Mrs. Laura Bush in the post-presidency, Anne managed the former First Lady’s engagement with foreign governments, NGOs, and international organizations. Her cross-sector experience bridges diplomacy, humanitarian response, academic research, and corporate leadership — helping align private-sector resources with public good in regions emerging from conflict. Out of her work with the Center for Conflict and Development, Anne was the lead author on a multi-year research effort that produced a history and of the US government’s engagement through the Vietnam War for the US Agency for International Development.

Anne holds a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where her research focused on economic development for countries in crisis, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Rhodes College. Anne has been an active member of the boards of organizations operating in Burma, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Liberia and Uganda, as well as at home in Dallas, Texas.