Judith Diers

Dr. Judith Diers brings over 30 years of experience in research, international development, and philanthropy. Her research expertise spans from quantitative analysis to the use of storytelling and feminist methodologies. Her career has focused on the support of adolescent girls, non-binary youth, and young feminists through funding, programmatic support and narrative change. Her expertise in disability justice enables her to bring a strong intersectional lens to all of her work.  

As a consultant, Judy leads strategy development, evaluates programs, and advises on research design, evaluation and ethics,  She also works with philanthropy to move more and better resources directly to communities and particularly to adolescent girls, explore the use of storytelling to shift narratives, and disrupt the hierarchy of evidence. As part of her commitment to DEI, she uses executive coaching to accompany new and diverse leadership in nonprofits, United Nations agencies, and philanthropy.

Most recently, Judy provided interim leadership to the LEGO Foundation during a time of strategic and organizational review.  As the programmatic Vice-President for the Foundation, and in the absence of a permanent CEO, she was responsible for grantmaking of over $400 million / year with a staff of over 80 persons.  Prior to that, she served as a program officer in international programs at the Ford Foundation where she brought her expertise on adolescent girls and disability justice. She co-chaired a nine-member philanthropic collaborative to invest in and amplify adolescent development science research and transform the narrative on adolescents, centering on equity and their lived experience. She was also responsible for the Foundation’s Fellowship program aimed at diversifying higher education in the US – at $100 million commitment over 10 years (the culmination of a 60 year investment), 

Judy’s international research and policy expertise was honed while serving as a researcher at the Population Council for 12 years where she oversaw a multi-country DFID-funded research project ”Transitions to Adulthood.”  While at the Population Council, she was appointed as a staff member of the Institutional Review Board, a role which she continues today as an external member. Judy was then recruited as the Adolescent Global Chief for Adolescents at UNICEF, where she provided strategic direction and coordination for adolescent-related programs and policies that spanned SRHR, education, child protection, water and sanitation, nutrition, and innovation. She led an extended team of seven regional advisors covering 140 countries and established a research agenda to support adolescent development, including the organization’s first symposium on adolescent neuroscience. Throughout her time at UNICEF she served as counsel to the Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, culminating in the development of a General Comment on Realizing the Rights of Children during Adolescence (GC 20). In addition to her formal roles, she has contributed to the field as a member of the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing from 2012-2018.  

Judy has a master’s in theology and ethics and a masters and PhD in public policy, with a focus on demography, gender, and development from Princeton University.  She is also certified as an executive coach through Columbia University/Teachers College.