Liz Pender

Emergency Technical Advisor, Women’s Protection & Empowerment Unit

Liz Pender recently rejoined the IRC as the emergency technical advisor for the Women’s Protection and Empowerment Unit.  Prior to assuming this role, Ms. Pender was a member of the Norwegian Refugee Council Emergency Gender Capacity Roster (GenCap) for several years and was seconded to the UN as an emergency gender/gender based violence advisor to the humanitarian coordinators in Darfur, Myanmar and Zimbabwe. Ms. Pender has also worked in multiple conflict-affected regions on gender based violence programming, coordination and advocacy, including Darfur, Sierra Leone, Azerbaijan and the Northern Caucasus. Ms. Pender holds a master’s degree in social work with a focus on international social welfare from Columbia University.