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Michael Breen, President & CEO of Human Rights First since 2018,is an American human rights leader, national security expert, attorney, and military veteran. He is frequently listed among influential policy experts and advocates in Washington, DC.

Education
Breen attended Dartmouth College on an ROTC scholarship and earned his Bachelor’s Degree there. At Dartmouth, he was active in the Mountaineering Club as an ice climbing instructor, served on a wilderness search and rescue team, climbed El Capitan with classmate Freddie Wilkinson, and studied abroad in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

Breen earned a JD from Yale Law School, where he co-founded the International Refugee Assistance Project, working with refugees in Syria and helping establish the University of Jordan’s first clinical legal education program.

Military Service
Breen served as a U.S. Army officer from 2002 to 2006, leading troops in Iraq and Afghanistan before resigning from the military with the rank of captain. In Iraq, Breen served for over a year with 1-6 Infantry, 1st Armored Division in Baghdad and the Triangle of Death (Iraq), where his unit was involved in heavy fighting. In Iraq, Breen earned a Presidential Unit Citation.

In Afghanistan, Breen served for a year as a platoon leader with the 173rd Airborne Brigade and with CJSOTF-A in the Korengal and Pech valleys, participating in numerous combat operations. During Operation Red Wings, Breen joined a team of special operations personnel that located and recovered wounded SEAL Marcus Luttrell, the lone survivor of a compromised reconnaissance team. At the operational level, Breen served as a member of Task Force 76’s Effects Based Operations Cell and as the Targeting Officer for the 1st Armored Division.

Early Career
Breen served in President Obama’s Office of White House Counsel in 2009, where he assisted with Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor’s confirmation process.

He was one of the leaders of Operation Free, a multiyear nationwide campaign to address climate change as a national security issue. The operation helped pass clean energy legislation at the federal level and in states including North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Ohio.