Lisa Block

Lisa Block [she/her/hers] is the Director, Emerging Movements & Opportunities at Global Fund for Women.

Lisa joined Global Fund for Women in 2014, and formerly served as the Program Officer, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Program Officer, Freedom from Violence. Previous to Global Fund for Women, she held community organizing roles at several community-based organizations in San Francisco, such as the International Institute of the Bay Area, where she created a community dance program for at-risk, adolescent girls. She also worked for Tostan in Senegal, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), which implements a basic education program based on human rights in rural communities in West and East Africa. She consulted on Tostan’s Peace and Security Initiative, helping to conduct participatory research with rural communities in West Africa about the root causes of conflict and community strategies to transform conflict. As a Peace Corps volunteer for three years in Niger, Lisa learned from and collaborated with rural community members to encourage the sustainable use of resources and girls’ education. Lisa earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from Brown University, a Masters in International Affairs, Civil Society Development, and Conflict Resolution at the American University of Paris, and a Masters 1 in Political Science at the Sorbonne. She speaks French, Spanish, and Wolof, a language of West Africa. Lisa finds inspiration and grounding in dance, music, and nature.