Born circa 1942, Chan Heng Chee earned her B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1964 and 1966, respectively.  She earned a second M.A. at Cornell University in 1967, and her Ph.D. in Political Science at NUS in 1974.  Her thesis was “The dynamics of one-party dominance: a study of five Singapore constituencies.”  As a professor of Political Science at NUS, she published several articles and books, chaired the Department from 1985 to 1987, and became the founder-director of the Institute of Policy Studies in 1988. Chan received Singapore’s National Book Award in 1978 for The Dynamics of One Party Dominance: The PAP at the Grassroots and again in 1986 for A Sensation of Independence: A Political Biography of David Marshall, Singapore’s first Prime Minister. 

 

Chan left academia in 1989 to serve as Singapore’s representative to the United Nations from 1989 to 1991, when she was also accredited as High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Mexico. Between 1991 and 1996, Chan served as Executive Director of the Singapore International Foundation, which is responsible for the Singaporean version of the US Peace Corps, and Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. 

 

She has been a member of the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations, New York, since 1995, and a council member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, since 1993. She has been a committee member of the Singapore National Committee for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, since 1993, and a member of the International Council of the Asia Society, New York, since 1991. 

 

Interview with Chan Heng Chee (Washington Life Magazine)