Nora O’Connell is a Senior Director at Strategy for Humanity. Based in Washington DC, Nora brings senior experience helping nonprofits with policy and advocacy, research, training, and strategy to address systemic inequality.
Just prior to joining Strategy for Humanity, Nora advised major international organizations through NKO Strategies, a firm she founded to advance progressive policy changes in U.S. foreign policy. Her approach for achieving policy reforms is based on three core beliefs: advocacy requires a strategy grounded in understanding the context and players so that action can be channeled toward clearly defined goals; the strongest path to sustainable change is attainable by shifting power to enable people to unlock their own potential; and there is great power in collective action. Guided by this approach, Nora has excelled in building diverse and dynamic coalitions and in facilitating conversations in ways that surface the greatest strategic thinking.
Previously, Nora served eleven years in senior leadership positions at Save the Children US. As Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy, Nora led the policy and international development advocacy portfolio, including aid effectiveness, gender equality, tax and governance issues, global health, food security, and U.S. budget and appropriations. She also co-chaired the global girls’ empowerment advocacy campaign that led to concrete policy changes in more than 25 countries. A leader on locally led development, she co-chaired the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network’s (MFAN) Accountability and Ownership Working Group.
Prior to joining Save the Children, Nora spent nearly a decade helping to build Women Thrive Worldwide as the leading NGO shaping U.S. policy on global women’s issues, serving as Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs. Women Thrive received InterAction’s Mildred Leet award for their advocacy to advance gender integration within Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Nora also served as deputy campaign manager for Chellie Pingree’s U.S. Senate campaign and led the Women and the Economy program at the Center for Policy Alternatives, a state-based think tank.
Nora's recent research and writing includes developing a framework for private sector engagement with NGOS and the White House in the lead up to the Global COVID Summit and conducting power-mapping based on desk research and key informant interviews to reflect the changing nature of political power. In addition, she has co-authored numerous blogs on U.S. international development policy, including those listed below:
Nora is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley with a B.A in Psychology and minor in Ethnic Studies. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in International Relations through a joint program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
Just prior to joining Strategy for Humanity, Nora advised major international organizations through NKO Strategies, a firm she founded to advance progressive policy changes in U.S. foreign policy. Her approach for achieving policy reforms is based on three core beliefs: advocacy requires a strategy grounded in understanding the context and players so that action can be channeled toward clearly defined goals; the strongest path to sustainable change is attainable by shifting power to enable people to unlock their own potential; and there is great power in collective action. Guided by this approach, Nora has excelled in building diverse and dynamic coalitions and in facilitating conversations in ways that surface the greatest strategic thinking.
Previously, Nora served eleven years in senior leadership positions at Save the Children US. As Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy, Nora led the policy and international development advocacy portfolio, including aid effectiveness, gender equality, tax and governance issues, global health, food security, and U.S. budget and appropriations. She also co-chaired the global girls’ empowerment advocacy campaign that led to concrete policy changes in more than 25 countries. A leader on locally led development, she co-chaired the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network’s (MFAN) Accountability and Ownership Working Group.
Prior to joining Save the Children, Nora spent nearly a decade helping to build Women Thrive Worldwide as the leading NGO shaping U.S. policy on global women’s issues, serving as Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs. Women Thrive received InterAction’s Mildred Leet award for their advocacy to advance gender integration within Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Nora also served as deputy campaign manager for Chellie Pingree’s U.S. Senate campaign and led the Women and the Economy program at the Center for Policy Alternatives, a state-based think tank.
Nora's recent research and writing includes developing a framework for private sector engagement with NGOS and the White House in the lead up to the Global COVID Summit and conducting power-mapping based on desk research and key informant interviews to reflect the changing nature of political power. In addition, she has co-authored numerous blogs on U.S. international development policy, including those listed below:
- O’Connell, Nora, Fugle, Justin, and Rowley, Lori. Key Lessons for Effective Foreign Assistance from USAID’s COVID-19 Response. Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, 02/25/2021.
- O’Connell, Nora, Ingram, George. USAID’s Draft Policy Retrenches on Gender Equality. Brookings Institution, 09/10/2020.
- O’Connell, Nora, Rowley, Lori. To Succeed in its Journey to Self-Reliance Approach with Partner Countries, USAID Needs a Civil Society Strategy. Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, 04/01/2020.
- O’Connell, Nora, Ingram, George. A Leap in Gender Equality Begins with Better Data. Brookings Institution, 05/14/2018.
Nora is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley with a B.A in Psychology and minor in Ethnic Studies. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in International Relations through a joint program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
