Sunjeev Bery

Sunjeev Bery serves as People Over Pentagon campaign director at Public Citizen, where he leads a coalition of hundreds of organizations, advocates, and scholars working to reduce wasteful Pentagon spending and redirect resources toward critical human needs.

Over the course of his career, Sunjeev has held a range of advocacy and campaign leadership roles focused on democracy, human rights, climate, and education. As a regional director for the American Civil Liberties Union, he organized and advocated on civil rights issues including post-9/11 government surveillance, immigrant rights, police accountability, and LGBTQIA+ equality. As executive director of Freedom Forward, he built and led international human rights and climate campaigns focused on ending U.S. alliances with repressive oil monarchies in the Middle East. As advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International USA, he lobbied U.S. and international officials, diplomats, and policymakers on  foreign policy and human rights concerns during the Arab Spring.

Sunjeev has also worked as a lobbyist on college affordability issues and as a fundraiser and digital campaigner for environmental organizations.

Sunjeev holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and an M.P.A. from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Harvard Public Service Fellow. He is a recipient of the 2007 Asian Law Alliance Community Impact Award and has received commendations from the California State Senate and State Assembly for his human rights advocacy. He has spoken widely in national and international media, and his commentary on U.S. foreign policy and human rights has appeared in a wide range of newspapers and other publications.