Elizabeth Romanoff Silva

Associate Director, Women’s Empowerment

Elizabeth Romanoff Silva is a women’s empowerment specialist with over 15 years of experience working on the intersection of women and economic development, governance, climate resilience and adaptation, education, and health. As Associate Director for Women’s Empowerment at The Asia Foundation, Elizabeth oversees the Foundation’s women’s economic empowerment portfolio of programs. She has served as a technical expert for numerous key research publications and led and supported initiatives to advance gender equality across the region. She has spoken at many high-profile regional and global convenings.

Elizabeth served as the project manager for the Summit on Women’s Leadership in STEM: A Japan-Republic of Korea-U.S. Trilateral, organized by The Asia Foundation in 2020. Elizabeth moderated sessions at the 2023 and 2019 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Women in the Economy Forums. She has facilitated gender workshops and trainings on topics including women’s economic empowerment and gender analysis for staff, partners, and young professionals from across Asia. Elizabeth has served as a technical expert on the following publications: Toward a Resilient Care Ecosystem in Asia and the Pacific: Promising Practices, Lessons Learned, and Pathways for Action on Decent Care Work (2023), Accelerating Women’s Advancement in STEM: Emerging Lessons on Network Strategies and Approaches in Asia (2021), Women, COVID-19 and the Future of Work in APEC (2020), Research Findings on the Environment for Women-Owned Businesses in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, (2019) and Emerging Lessons on Women’s Entrepreneurship in Asia and the Pacific: Case Studies from the Asian Development Bank and The Asia Foundation (2018).

Previously, Elizabeth oversaw women’s empowerment efforts on a United States Agency for International Development $210 million quality improvement project at WI-HER LLC. Prior to this, Elizabeth held numerous positions at Save the Children to advance adolescent girls’ rights and opportunities through conducting targeted gender audits and co-authoring a toolkit. Elizabeth is also a Fulbright Scholar; she conducted research on women’s political and economic opportunities through the Fulbright Program in 2012-2013.

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. Elizabeth has a native-level fluency in Spanish and speaks elementary Mandarin and Slovak. She was awarded a Presidential Award for Exceptional Performance from The Asia Foundation in 2018 and 2020.

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