Elisa joined Publish What You Pay as its Executive Director in February 2016. She brings 20 years of experience in international campaigning, grassroots movement building and high-level advocacy. She has worked and lived in central and north America, Europe and Russia. She witnessed the too often devastating impacts of large-scale resource exploitation on people and nature when living alongside indigenous communities in the arctic for five years. Her interest in and passion for equitable and sustainable resource use stems from that experience. Elisa also spent 6 years working for the United Nations as the Head of the UN’s Non-governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) in New York, advocating for and supporting civil society’s meaningful participation in the UN’s decision making processes. Most recently, she advised The Elders, a group of former Heads of State and Nobel Prize winners, on their political strategies related to peace and security, sustainable development, climate change and women’s rights. She holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.