June 2025 would have marked ten years since I began my journey with Mercy Corps. I left just shy of that milestone, but not of my mission. The number was never the point. The depth, the conviction, the clarity I gained along the way, that is what remains intact.
For nearly a decade, I showed up. Not just in a job, not just for a project, but for something much more personal and enduring:
For purpose.
For transformation.
For systems that needed to be reimagined.
For people who needed to be seen and heard in their full humanity.
And for a deeper belief that equity is not an accessory to development—it is the foundation.
This work has never been about adding gender to a checklist. For me, gender equity was and remains the lens through which I design, lead, and deliver impact. It is the ethical ground I stand on. The compass that guides my decisions. And the standard by which I measure integrity in systems, institutions, and leadership.
Where I Stood. Who I Stood With.
I have had the privilege of working across some of the most complex and courageous contexts in the world. And in each one, I was reminded that the fight for equity is not theoretical, it is lived every day.
Until today, women face daily violence just trying to reach health centers or find food. In many places, girls walk past armed men just to attend school. Adolescent girls are still denied space to speak about their bodies, their rights, and their futures. In other settings, thousands of women are displaced and forgotten, surviving trauma with little to no care. And across all these places, women continue to organize, lead, and rebuild, often without being noticed.
These are not isolated stories. They are connected by a thread of injustice that persists across borders. And by the quiet, determined leadership of women who keep building even as systems overlook them.
If Gender Is Still a Debate, We Haven’t Been Paying Attention
If gender integration still feels like a burden, then perhaps we have not been listening, truly listening, to the realities of those most affected.
Gender is not a box to tick. It is not an obligation to fulfill for the sake of optics or compliance. It is a call to redesign the very systems that exclude, exploit, or erase. It is a recognition that safety, dignity, and agency should never be negotiable.
This work cannot be driven by convenience. It must be rooted in urgency, empathy, and courage. Because at its core, gender equity is not a moral argument—it is a matter of survival, resilience, and the future of development itself.
What I Am Carrying Forward
I have stepped into a new chapter, one defined by precision, purpose, and possibility.
This is not the closing of a chapter.
This is the expansion of everything I have fought for.
It is an invitation to build from a place of truth. To design with those at the margins. To lead systems that reflect the values we speak so often about, but so rarely structure.
If you are building something bold, necessary, and equity-rooted, I would be honored to support, advise, or collaborate.
Let’s move from intention to architecture.
Let’s build what we keep saying is possible.