Amanda Van Dort is the Senior Advisor on Women, Peace, and Security in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations.  She previously worked in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration where she covered Population Policy and Gender-based Violence in humanitarian settings.  Amanda completed a Presidential Management Fellowship in 2018 and rotated in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the Stability and Humanitarian Affairs Bureau where she covered International Humanitarian Policy, including adherence to International Humanitarian Law and Women, Peace, and Security. Amanda completed a graduate degree in Public Policy at the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School.  Prior to graduate school, she served as the Country Director for Emerge Global, a non-profit based in Sri Lanka that provides economic empowerment, life skills training programs, and mentorship to teenage girls who were survivors of sexual assault and abuse.

Kahina Robinson

Kahina Robinson is a Foreign Service Officer currently serving as a special advisor for public diplomacy in the office of South Sudan and Sudan. She previously served as a staff assistant in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, as a Watch Officer/Senior Watch Officer in the Operations Center, as the Cultural Affairs Officer at U.S. Embassy Niamey, Niger, and as a Consular Officer in Brasilia, Brazil. Prior to joining the State Department in 2011, she worked in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network at the World Bank. A proud graduate of DC Public Schools, Kahina studied Literary Media Arts at Duke Ellington School of the Arts before obtaining a BA in anthropology from Yale and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University. She speaks Portuguese and French.

 Stephanie Mulhern Ogorzalek 

As the Senior Policy Advisor in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues  (S/GWI), Stephanie Mulhern Ogorzalek leads the U.S. Department of State’s work on preventing and responding to gender-based violence globally.  She also leads S/GWI’s efforts to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in multilateral affairs.  Stephanie previously worked in the Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, coordinating U.S. democracy and human rights policy in West and Central Africa and South America.  Prior to jaoining the Department of State, she served as a Strategic Communications Analyst for the Department of Defense, advising on the use of messaging to prevent and mitigate violent conflict and encourage community reconciliation.  She also worked as a social development consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank’s Gender and Diversity Division in Bogota, Colombia, managing efforts to combat gender-based violence and foster post-conflict opportunities for women.  Stephanie holds a MA from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and BA from the University of Notre Dame.  She is originally from Buffalo, New York.