Lisa Gans

Lisa Gans is a human rights lawyer and international development expert turned social innovation and community development specialist. She began her legal career at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York and went on to work on human rights and development issues around the world with non-governmental organizations including the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights Legal Aid Project, The International Rescue Committee, the International Bar Association, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Medica Mondiale, and the International Medical Corps. She has specialized in legal and constitutional development, civil society development, women’s rights, refugee issues and international health development, and has worked in Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Lisa was a term member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations and spent a year as a Fuse Corps Fellow working with the D.C. Promise Neighborhood Initiative. More recently, she was Executive Vice President of City First Enterprises in Washington D.C. and a Fellow at the Beeck Center for Social Innovation. She now works with SMALLIFY, a California-based Rapid Innovation company, and consults on a broad range of issue. She holds a B.A. from Harvard in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.