From October 2021 to June 2024, Richard was a Distinguished Fellow and co-founder of the Afghanistan Human Rights Coordination Mechanism at Freedom House.

[3] She lived in West Germany 1985–86 as a fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation but returned to OMB afterwards.

She was a fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1993 to 1994 and during this time helped to create the International Crisis Group.

[3] President Barack Obama nominated her to be Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration and after Senate confirmation, she was sworn in on April 2, 2012.

In October 2021, she joined Freedom House as a Distinguished Fellow and Afghanistan Coordination Lead.