Assistant Director, Women's Empowerment Program

Elizabeth Romanoff Silva is a gender equality specialist with more than 10 years of experience working on the intersection of gender equality and economic growth, education, and health. As Assistant Director for Women’s Empowerment at The Asia Foundation, Elizabeth oversees the Foundation’s women’s economic empowerment portfolio including programs to advance women’s entrepreneurship and girls’ and young women’s educational opportunities. Elizabeth has served as a technical expert for numerous key research publications including Research Findings on the Environment for Women-Owned Businesses in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea in 2019 and Emerging Lessons on Women’s Entrepreneurship in Asia and the Pacific: Case Studies from the Asian Development Bank and The Asia Foundation in 2018.

Elizabeth has spoken at various international convenings, most recently moderating a panel at the 2019 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Women in the Economy Forum on women’s entrepreneurship and shared prosperity in the digital age, where she was also selected as an official delegate of the U.S. Government. She has facilitated gender equality workshops and trainings on topics including women’s economic empowerment and gender analysis for staff, partners, and young professionals from across Asia. Previously, Elizabeth oversaw women’s empowerment and gender equality efforts on a United States Agency for International Development quality improvement project with a ceiling of $185 million at WI-HER LLC. Prior to this, Elizabeth held numerous positions at Save the Children U.S. where she advanced adolescent girls’ rights and opportunities through conducting targeted gender audits and co-authoring a gender mainstreaming toolkit.

Elizabeth is a Fulbright Scholar; she conducted research on gender equality and women’s economic opportunities through the Fulbright Program in 2012-2013.

Education: Elizabeth holds a master’s degree in Public Administration with a concentration in International Development Management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a bachelor’s degree in World Cultures and Languages from California State University Monterey Bay. She holds certificates in Development Project Management and Mandarin Chinese.