David Shorr has spent most of his career as an analyst working with leading think tanks, philanthropies and advocacy groups across a broad range of foreign policy issues, and is currently working to wind down the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation’s nuclear security program.

Before he was engaged on that project, he spent 14 years with the Iowa-based Stanley Foundation, developing constructive new approaches to the world's compelling challenges, including the evolution of the G-20, climate change, the roles of rising powers, US national security strategy, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's 2005 initiative to reform the United Nations, and refugee protection and rights issues.

He was awarded a BA in religious studies from Brown University, and an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.