Claudia Gonzalez has over seven years of experience in the field of international development with a focus on gender equality. She specializes in program design and evaluation and has regional expertise in Latin America.

Before she joined the Global Human Development (GHD) Program, Claudia was the program and grants manager at the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), a press freedom organization that promotes a greater diversity of voices in the news media worldwide. Claudia led nine fellowship, grant and award programs at the IWMF, which resourced journalists from marginalized communities and funded groundbreaking reporting on underreported issues. From 2019 to 2022, Claudia designed, implemented, monitored and expanded the IWMF's training and grant-making programs for local journalists in Latin America and Africa, including an LGBTQI+ reporting initiative that trained 180 Mexican, Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Honduran journalists. She also previously coordinated and staffed reporting trips for women journalists in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia and Rwanda.

While in the GHD program, Claudia has worked for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in Mexico City where she supported the agency's communications efforts to strengthen donor and diplomatic engagement. Claudia has also interned with the Bureau for Development, Democracy and Innovation at USAID and has conducted interviews for the Institute for the Study of International Migration to research living conditions for new immigrant families in Washington, DC. Most recently, Claudia is helping to advance the women, peace and security agenda by contributing to research and communications at Our Secure Future.

Summer Internship Experience

Protecting the Rights of Forcibly Displaced Persons with UNHCR Mexico

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to work for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in Mexico City as an associate external relations officer. My main responsibilities involved supporting UNHCR’s communications and donor relations to raise awareness of and support for refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced persons. To me, this was an especially interesting time to work for UNHCR Mexico as the country has ranked among the world’s top five recipients of new individual asylum applications since 2021. My role allowed me to learn about UNHCR’s programs across southern, central, and northern Mexico and provided me with unique insight on the political context and shifting trends related to population movements. On a day-to-day basis, my tasks primarily included developing informational materials, like briefing packages for donor and diplomatic site visits; creating factsheets on issue areas like gender-based violence; writing and editing concept notes; and coordinating and drafting weekly internal memos. Some of my most memorable experiences were participating in activities for World Refugee Day, an international day to honor refugees around the globe, and accompanying colleagues from UNHCR’s protection unit on monitoring visits to local shelters for asylum-seekers and other forcibly displaced persons.

Why GHD?

I choose GHD because of the practitioner-based curriculum and the smaller cohort size that really allows you to get to know all your classmates.