A seasoned narrative and communications professional, Elizabeth Johnsen is responsible for overseeing implementation of The Opportunity Agenda’s ambitious programmatic vision. With extensive experience in project and staff management, Elizabeth works to develop the organization’s plan of action, design effective workflow systems, and oversee cross-team collaboration to achieve programmatic goals. She also works to assess and evaluate the organization’s programmatic impact in the field, relying on current best-practices while collaborating with partners and funders to develop new methods of impact evaluation.
A former journalist, Elizabeth transitioned to the social justice field in 2010. Before this career change, she spent four years living in Riga, Latvia, where she was a reporter for and then editor of The Baltic Times. Many of her stories focused on social justice and human rights issues in the Baltic states and Russia. She has contributed to international news organizations such as Transitions Online and the BBC. Her non-profit experience includes working for Freedom House, where she helped edit the annual Nations in Transit report, and as a data researcher for ClearHealthCosts, a New York-based startup that advances equal opportunity in health care.
Elizabeth received her MA from Columbia University at the Harriman Institute, where she studied migration and human rights in post-Soviet states. She has a BA in Communications and Scandinavian Studies from the University of Washington.
