Kristen Woolf

As EMpower’s Vice President of Programs, Kristen is responsible for leading the organization’s programmatic work, including grantmaking in fifteen countries, and contributing significant organizational management expertise and strategy. Kristen has spent the last eighteen years seeking to learn and to find better ways to channel resources to where they matter most – with a strong focus on underinvested in adolescent girls and young people.

Kristen has held a number of senior leadership roles and has overseen global initiatives as well as programmatic portfolios in the US, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Indonesia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Sudan.

In consulting and strategic planning roles, she has worked with the Novo Foundation, Social Development Direct, the Malala Fund, The Population Council, The British Asian Trust, and Glamour/Condé Nast. In programmatic roles, she has worked with the Nike Foundation / Girl Effect, UNICEF, UNFPA, Oxfam-GB, and the International Rescue Committee.

Kristen holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Texas and a graduate degree in Social Work (social welfare policy and immigrant and refugee populations) from Columbia University. In her family, she is a first generation college graduate and she is forever grateful to AmeriCorps National Service program for equipping her to do so.