Elizabeth D. Gibbons, Instructor, is a key advisor on FXB Child Protection initiatives including its cross-graduate school Child Protection Certificate program and G. Barrie Landry Child Protection Professional Training program. One of FXB’s child protection experts, she advises students on case studies, presents her work and engagement across child protection systems, including at FXB’s monthly Work-In-Progress seminar series, and engages with HU graduate students and executive education students on issues relating to child protection. In her prior capacity of Director of the Child Protection Certificate Program, Liz led development of the cross-disciplinary child protection curriculum for Harvard graduate students, an online HarvardX course and the Executive Education course for child protection professionals. She further participates in FXB initiatives which leverage her expertise in advancing the human rights of children and adolescents. Since 2014, she has been engaged in the exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on human rights, with particular attention to the potential for these technologies to affect inequality within and between global societies.
Prior to her academic appointment at the FXB Center, Elizabeth Gibbons enjoyed a lengthy career in international development, primarily with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), during which she lived and worked in Togo, Kenya and Zimbabwe, and served as head of UNICEF’s offices in Haiti and in Guatemala. She also held several positions in UNICEF’s New York Headquarters, including Acting Director, Emergency Operations; Chief, Global Policy; and Deputy Director, Division of Policy and Practice. A graduate of Smith College and Columbia University, Ms. Gibbons is fluent in French and Spanish, and the author of Sanctions in Haiti: Human Rights and Democracy under Assault, as well as a contributing author to several other books.