Samar Ali is an entrepreneur and lawyer whose international career has spanned tenures at the White House, in South Africa, at the State Government of Tennessee.

Samar is a recipient of the White House Fellows IMPACT Award and the Young Alumni Professional Achievement Award from Vanderbilt University. As a White House Fellow in President Barack Obama’s administration, Ali worked closely with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, focusing on
bilateral national security negotiations. After Ali’s time in federal government, she served as Assistant Commissioner for International Affairs to Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. Samar later co-founded Lodestone Advisory Group, a multi-national consulting firm. She maintains her law practice through Bass Berry & Sims with a focus on national security and cybersecurity law.

She is a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum; a Term Member with the Council on Foreign Relations; and is a Winrock International Board Member.

Samar is also an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University School of Law and sits on the board of several non-profit and educational institutions, including Vanderbilt Law School. She is also a Commissioner on the Nashville Metro Council Human Relations Commission, whose mission is to protect the personal dignity, peace, safety, security, health and general welfare of all people in Nashville and Davidson County. With a background in national security and conflict mediation, Samar now leads the Millions of Conversations Campaign. Her work is featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Tedx Nashville, the Tennessean and she is currently working on a book about finding belonging in America today.

During her time at, and after graduating from law school, Samar served as a law clerk to the Honorable Gilbert S. Merritt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the Honorable Edwin Cameron, now of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.