Kristen Engberg
Vice President for Strategic Initiatives
Joined the Lawyers Committee in 2001

Kristen Engberg began working with the Lawyers Committee in 2001, as a consultant overseeing the re-alignment of the organization’s Program Department. In her new post as Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Kristen oversees major organization-wide initiatives, including: supervising our efforts to reach out to and mobilize new sources of financial and political support; guiding institutional strategic planning and organizational growth; and strengthening overall management practices.

Kristen brings to the Lawyers Committee nearly 20 years of experience in the non-profit sector, more than a dozen of which have been spent working with rights-focused advocacy organizations. Just prior to joining the Lawyers Committee, Kristen served as Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, where she successfully designed and implemented a major turnaround plan of organizational development, including a re-assessment of the organization’s signature direct actions, a re-engineering of its campaign and constituency-building strategies, and strengthening of its financial base.

Between 1987 and 2001, Kristen supervised the start up of several grassroots advocacy organizations; has consulted on advocacy strategies and organization-building for a range of NGOs in the fields of the environment, women’s rights, AIDS policy, and indigenous people’s rights, among others; and has held senior management positions in several prominent national and international NGOs. Her first career was in arts education and advocacy, which included stints in several media arts and contemporary arts institutions, running a foundation supporting independent film- and video-makers, and publishing media arts criticism.

Kristen holds a B.A. from Williams College (1982) and an M.A. in Social and Political Theory from Sussex University (1992). She also holds a Certificate in Non-profit Management from the Graduate School of Management at New York University.