Join us for the fall 2025 Professor Saul M. Katz Lecture on Economic and Social Development featuring Nitin Madhav (MID/MPH). Register to save your seat: https://pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bw5GkjX0brB59IO. 

Until the closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington, DC in July 2025 by the Trump Administration, Nitin Madhav was the Director of Central Asia and Afghanistan Affairs, where he led a team that supported programs throughout the five Central Asian Republics and Afghanistan. Prior to that, he was the Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Afghanistan Affairs where he led the Agency’s efforts during the largest airlift of refugees during the evacuation of Kabul in 2021.

Prior to his current work on Afghanistan, Mr. Madhav was the Officer-in-Charge for USAID’s Burma, China, Tibet, Cambodia, Mongolia and Laos Programs and worked on regional frameworks such as the Lower Mekong Initiative.

Previously, Mr. Madhav was the Officer-in-Charge of Pakistan Programs, supporting the USAID Mission in Pakistan to implement almost half a billion dollars in development and earthquake reconstruction programs, and a $750 million program in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the volatile border with Afghanistan.

From 2002-2025, Mr. Madhav was the Program Development Officer covering Afghanistan, spending the majority of his time in Kabul. Soon after the fall of the Taliban, the USAID Administrator requested that Mr. Madhav spearhead an emergency back-to-school program for Afghan children who had been denied an education under that regime. Mr. Madhav led a team of 2,000 people to print and distribute 10.5 million textbooks across Afghanistan in time for the March 21, 2002 opening of schools, for which he received a White House commendation.

Mr. Madhav first joined USAID in 1999 as a Technical Advisor for the Child Survival Grants Program – a series of grants made to U.S.-based organizations to work in child survival and maternal health issues in 36 countries worldwide.

He also worked on USAID’s flagship child survival project, BASICS, backstopping programs in West Africa, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the countries of the former Soviet Union. He was also the Country Director for Doctors of the World’s refugee program in Rwanda in 1997. He worked with Save the Children, UNICEF, Médecins Sans Frontières and Relief International in Tajikistan following the 1993 civil war. Mr. Madhav got his start in international development working with Afghan refugees in Pakistan in 1992.

Mr. Madhav has two master’s degrees in Public and International Affairs (MPIA)and Public Health (MPH) from the University of Pittsburgh and specializes in countries in conflict. He is fluent in several South Asian languages.

This event is co-hosted by the SPIA Dean's Office and the Ford Institute for Human Security.