Lisa Block

Lisa Block [she/her/hers] is the Program Officer, Freedom from Violence at Global Fund for Women.

Lisa is dedicated to increasing women and girl’s agency and choice. Prior to the Global Fund for Women, her experience in Sub-Saharan Africa includes work with the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Tostan in Senegal, the Peace Corps in Niger, and a semester abroad in Madagascar through the School for International Training. In her first role with Tostan, which implements a basic education program based on human rights in rural communities throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, Lisa managed multi-year grants from bilateral agencies and collaborated with staff across Africa to improve communications and tools for monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. Subsequently, she consulted on Tostan’s Peace and Security Initiative, helping to conduct participatory research with rural communities throughout West Africa about the root causes of conflict, build partnerships with regional peace and security actors, and develop new programming. As a Peace Corps volunteer for three years in Niger, Lisa worked alongside rural community members to encourage the sustainable use of resources, women’s skill-building, and girls’ education. Committed to addressing social inequities in her local community, she held positions with several non-profit 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. 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. While in graduate school, she interned for the Women’s Committee of Amnesty International France, advocating for causes such as further governmental and institutional support for reproductive health care in Burkina Faso. She wrote her Masters thesis on a grassroots approach to peace and security in West Africa, with a focus on women’s inclusion. She is fluent in French and speaks Spanish and two West African languages.