Major Fellowship Activities: Hamilton worked as the Project Coordinator for WFA’s Preventive Diplomacy Project, where she designed, planned and executed all aspects of WFA’s new Preventive Diplomacy Advocacy and Education Project in support of strengthened United Nations preventive diplomacy capabilities. She developed background materials for a variety of audiences, including grassroots activists, Congresspersons and other non-profit organizations. She developed a set of draft proposals which included information from interviews with experts in the field and wrote a grassroots action packet for a Partners Program action, which involved convening panel discussions on U.N. preventive diplomacy, and establishing the foundations for a coalition. Hamilton also wrote a Briefing Book on United Nations Preventive Diplomacy for Members of Congress, activists and non-profits, and met with the U.N. Under-Secretary General for the Department of Political Affairs.
Current Activities: Hamilton is Executive Director of the Elevate Children Funders Group, a funders affinity group for children in adversity. She is also on the Board of Trustees of In Place of War, a global organization using creativity to overcome conflict. She was previously Deputy Executive Director at Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage. She focused on facilitating international advocacy efforts at a global and regional level to achieve the policy, programmatic and funding changes that are crucial to bringing an end to child marriage.
She was previously a Consultant at the East Asia and Pacific Regional Office of UNICEF in Thailand, helping Country Offices in planning, communications and fundraising on a new initiative to advocate with Ministries of Finance for more adequate, effective, efficient and equitable budget resource allocations for children, especially the most disadvantaged. She became Executive Director of the Connect U.S. Fund in July 2009. She previously served as its Senior Policy Advocate. The Connect U.S. Fund, which existed between 2003 – 2013, promoted responsible U.S. global engagement in an increasingly interdependent world through grantmaking and activities that advanced foreign policy objectives and supported an effective, collaborative community of individuals and organizations working toward common goals. As Senior Policy Advocate, she spearheaded efforts to create a network, help NGOs achieve their policy goals, and advance the policy debate on critical foreign policy issues. She was Chair of the Board of Directors of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. She was previously Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff at Citizens for Global Solutions. She coordinated the work of CGS’ staff and managed cross-departmental initiatives and advocacy campaigns; led the process of determining organizational priorities and monitored the implementation of the strategic plan; and served as a primary external representative of the organization with the media, non-profits, coalitions, foundations and other stakeholders. She was formerly the director of programs, where she oversaw the Campaign to End Genocide and the International Criminal Court project. Prior to that she worked as Manager of the Community Education Center at OMB Watch working on nonprofit advocacy issues. She spent six months as an intern with the Women and Habitat Programme of the U.N. Centre on Human Settlements (Habitat) in Nairobi, where she worked to establish women’s rights to land and property in situations of conflict and reconstruction. She also conducted research and wrote “Rwanda’s Women: The Key to Reconstruction,” which was published as a chapter in the Journal of Humanitarian Assistance’s online book, The Future of the African Great Lakes Region. She received a Human Rights Award from the United Nations Association of the National Capitol Area in 2001. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for U.N. Reform Education and a member of Women in International Security.
The fellowship was perfect for me. My experience far exceeded my expectations; I was basically given direction over an entire project, which gave me a tremendous amount of experience and skills. I had intended to study conflict resolution in grad school, so this fit perfectly into my career goals, and even helped me to pinpoint early resolution of conflict as the area which most fascinates me.