Wendy Patten is a respected leader, strategist, advocate, and grant maker who works to advance human rights, gender equality, justice, and the rule of law in the United States and globally. She has held leadership roles in the U.S. government, multilateral organizations, foundations, and civil society organizations working at the international, national, and community level. She helps organizations design and implement inclusive, high-impact strategies on a wide range of human rights, refugee, and related policy issues.
Wendy spent over a decade with the Open Society Foundations and Policy Center. There she designed and led advocacy initiatives and advocacy-oriented grantmaking on human rights in U.S. national security and on refugee protection. She conceptualized and co-created multi-stakeholder advocacy campaigns, built coalitions for developing and executing strategies for legislative and policy reform, and managed relationships with Congress, the Administration, international organizations, advocacy partners, and grantees. She has also served as OSCE Special Representative on Gender Issues, as Director of Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs at the National Security Council, and held senior roles at Human Rights Watch, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Earlier in her career, she was a legal aid lawyer representing immigrant and refugee women and children.
Wendy received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Harvard, studied international relations at the University of Strasbourg, and received her B.A. from Princeton University. She has taught women’s human rights at Georgetown University.
