The Carter Center

On April 21, 1982, Jimmy Carter was named University Distinguished Professor at Emory University and planned a policy research center; a planning session on Sapelo Island on July 16–18, 1982, shaped the center’s design and purpose.⁠[1]

In 1982 Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter founded The Carter Center to address public policy issues.⁠[2]

On June 15, 1983, a 12-member board of advisors was appointed, and on November 6–9, 1983, Jimmy Carter and Gerald FordGerald FordGerald Ford (1913–2006) was an American politician who represented Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973 and became House minority leader in 1965. In 1973 he became the first vice president appointed under the 25th Amendment, and after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 he served as the 38th president of the United States until 1977.Open the full entry hosted the center’s first consultation on the Middle East. Ground was broken in Atlanta on October 2, 1984.⁠[1]

William H. Foege was named executive director on May 15, 1986, and the new center complex was dedicated on October 1, 1986. The Jimmy Carter Library opened to researchers on January 28, 1987.⁠[1]

On August 1, 1986, the center founded Global 2000 to run health and food security programs. That year it took over leadership of the campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease, when an estimated 3.5 million human cases occurred each year in 21 countries in Africa and Asia.⁠[1][3]

Also in 1986 the center created the Carter-Menil Human Rights Foundation (March 19) and the Council of Freely Elected Heads of Government (November), and awarded the first Carter-Menil Human Rights Prize on December 10.⁠[1]

On May 7, 1989, members of the Council of Freely Elected Heads of Government observing Panama’s elections called them fraudulent. Preliminary Ethiopia–Eritrea peace talks began at the center on September 7–19, 1989, and reconvened in Nairobi in November and December. In 1990 the council observed Nicaragua’s presidential election (February), elections in the Dominican Republic (May) and Haiti’s first free and fair democratic elections (December 16).⁠[1]

John Hardman was appointed executive director on January 1, 1993. On June 12–18, 1994, Jimmy Carter negotiated terms for the first U.S.–North Korea dialogue in 40 years; on September 17–18, 1994, he traveled to Haiti with Colin Powell and Sam NunnSam NunnSam Nunn is a Democratic former U.S. senator from Georgia who served from 1972 to 1997.Open the full entry and negotiated the peaceful departure of its de facto leaders, averting a U.S.-led invasion; and on December 17–21, 1994, a center mission to Yugoslavia secured a four-month cease-fire between Bosnian Muslims and Serbs and the resumption of peace talks.⁠[4]

On March 30, 1995, Jimmy Carter negotiated a two-month cease-fire in Sudan that allowed the center to begin Guinea worm eradication and other health work there.⁠[4]

The center established its River Blindness Program on April 30, 1996. Pakistan was certified as having eliminated Guinea worm disease on January 24, 1997. In October 1999 Jimmy Carter signed an agreement with Mali to launch a trachoma control program, and that month the center received $30 million for blindness prevention programs.⁠[4]

On December 10, 1998, Jimmy Carter received the first U.N. Human Rights Prize. On June 7, 1999, the center sent 100 observers to Indonesia’s parliamentary elections, and on July 2, 2000, a center delegation observed the Mexican presidential election that ended 71 years of PRI rule.⁠[4]

Jimmy Carter received the 2002 Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize is an international award established under the will of Alfred Nobel, comprising five prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace, awarded since 1901; its funds are managed by the Nobel Foundation, whose Board is based in Stockholm. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, established in 1968, is not a Nobel Prize.Open the full entry for Peace, whose citation honored his “decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts” and his work to advance democracy and human rights and to promote economic and social development. Earlier, in 1999, the center and the Carters had received the Delta Prize for Global Understanding.⁠[2][5]

In its first 25 years the center observed 67 elections in 26 countries, and by 2007 Guinea worm cases had fallen to fewer than 50,000.⁠[5]

Paige Alexander became chief executive officer in 2020. She worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development on Europe and Eurasia programs from 1993 to 2001, returned in 2011 as a presidential appointee and assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia, and was confirmed by the Senate in 2015 to lead its Middle East and North Africa Bureau; from 2017 until joining the center she was executive director of the European Cooperative for Rural Development.⁠[6]

The co-founder Rosalynn Carter died at her home in Plains, Georgia, on November 19, 2023, at the age of 96. At the center she had created the Mental Health Program, which promotes mental health programs and policy internationally.⁠[7]

Jimmy Carter turned 100 on October 1, 2024. He died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100, the longest-lived U.S. president.⁠[8][2]

His remains lay in repose at the center before his funeral in Washington, D.C.⁠[5]

As of November 2026 Paige Alexander is chief executive officer, and Jason Carter, the eldest grandchild of President and Mrs. Carter, is chair of the board. William H. Foege, the center’s first executive director, died on January 24, 2026.⁠[6][3]

Ten human cases of Guinea worm disease were recorded worldwide in 2025 (a provisional figure to be confirmed by each country at the annual meeting), the lowest total on record and 33% fewer than the 15 cases in 2024; they occurred in Chad (4), Ethiopia (4) and South Sudan (2). The center states that the disease has been reduced by more than 99.99% since 1986.⁠[3]

The center works in partnership with Emory University, and its staff is based mainly on a 35-acre park between downtown Atlanta and Emory University; the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, operated by the National Archives and Records AdministrationNational Archives and Records AdministrationThe National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government whose mission is to provide public access to the federal government records in its custody and control. It was established in 1934 and has borne its present name since 1985.Open the full entry, stands on the same grounds. Its programs include Guinea worm eradication, river blindness, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis and schistosomiasis control, and election observation since 1989, and it has worked in more than 65 countries.⁠[5]

Under Jimmy Carter’s leadership the center sent 114 election observation missions to the Americas, Africa and Asia and took part in conflict mediation in places including Ethiopia and Eritrea, North Korea, Haiti, Bosnia, Sudan, Venezuela, Nepal and Mali.⁠[2]

The Carter Center: Official website: https://www.cartercenter.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[8]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-carter-center (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/CarterCenter/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]