Amanda Van Dort

Amanda J. Van Dort is an Adjunct Lecturer at Johns Hopkins SAIS and most recently served as Acting Chief of Staff and Division Chief for Policy, Planning, and Public Diplomacy in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State.  In this role, she led Department-wide gender-equality strategy, institutional reform, and interagency coordination, overseeing initiatives such as 18 FAM 302, the Intersectional Gender Analysis Framework, and the Gender Integration Scorecard.  Amanda brings more than a decade of global experience across government, international organizations, and civil society, including prior service as Country Director of Emerge Global in Sri Lanka and policy roles with the Department of Defense and the International Organization for Migration.  She also teaches in the Global Gender Policy Program at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.  Her work focuses on the Women, Peace & Security agenda; gendered dynamics of conflict and strategic competition; humanitarian response and displacement; and the intersection of gender, and human rights, and atrocity prevention — including preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence.  Amanda holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan and through her organization, AVD Strategies for Feminist Futures, she continues to advise policymakers on integrating gender analysis and women’s empowerment into diplomacy, development, and national security strategy.