Deborah Backus

Deborah supports the execution of the global impact strategy with a focus on building Worldreader’s digital services and global collaborations and partnerships that enhance the reach. Her nearly 20-year career has focused on facilitating organizational adaptability; to overcome challenges, address complex societal problems, and increase organizational capacity for creating impact. She recently supported special projects, in the context of COVID and a global volunteer evacuation, for the US Peace Corps. Prior to that, she spent five years with the ed-tech innovation fund, the All Children Reading Grand Challenge. She has spent a number of years leading policy and government reform initiatives in the Middle East and has worked with refugee communities in Thailand, Cambodia, and the US for both the United Nations and NGOs.

Deborah holds a Master of Social Work focused on social-economic development and management from Washington University in St. Louis.