Nicolette Naylor is a special advisor for international programs. Over her 16- year tenure, she has served in several key roles at the foundation, including senior program officer, regional director and, most recently, international program director for Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice. In this last role, she led the team’s efforts in expanding the role of philanthropy in global processes and facilitating critical partnerships between civil society, governments, private sector, and philanthropic partners across global forums. Previously, she was the regional director of the foundation's Southern Africa office in Johannesburg, where she focused her grantmaking on human rights and governance with a specific concentration on women's rights and advancing the progressive socioeconomic rights within in the region’s constitutions.
Before joining the foundation in 2007, Nicolette worked as a lawyer in the equality program at the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights in London, focusing on international human rights and litigation, including women's rights, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the European Court of Human Rights. Previously, she served as a public interest lawyer at the Women’s Legal Centre in Cape Town, where she worked to protect and promote women’s rights.
Nicolette has been appointed to a number of advisory bodies across Africa, including the Committee on Gender Equity, established by the South African minister of education, and an expert committee that reviews draft legislation on violence against women in Nigeria. She has also served as a member of ACHPR’s expert committee for the protection of the rights of people living with, at risk for, or otherwise affected by HIV in Africa.
