Kevin Sullivan

Kevin Sullivan is Chairman of the Washington Ireland Program for Service and Leadership (WIP), a six-month leadership program that brings outstanding Protestant and Catholic university students from Northern Ireland and the Republic to Washington, D.C. for summer internships and leadership development. Over 475 emerging leaders have graduated from the program in the last eighteen years, representing twenty-five different universities throughout the UK and Ireland. These graduates represent a rising generation of Irish leaders. Kevin led the initiative to grow SAWIP from a WIP pilot project to an independent non-profit and served as SAWIP’s first chairman for two years before handing over the leadership of SAWIP to Carol Wheeler.

A former Senior Advisor and Speechwriter to US. Secretary of Education Richard Riley (1993-2001) Kevin participated in two of President Clinton’s trip to Northern Ireland. Prior to joining Secretary’s Riley staff, Sullivan worked for fourteen years for various members of the U.S. Congress and staffed out three national presidential candidates. He is best known for drafting the historic Keynote Address given by Cong. Barbara Jordan at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Kevin has spent the last decade consulting for a variety of non-profits organizations and foundations and is currently leading the “Design for Aging” initiative for the American Architectural Foundation. A graduate of the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University Kevin lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife and three children.