Elise M. Verdooner

Elise is an international development professional with over 10 years of experience in program management, planning, monitoring and evaluation. She has worked across a variety of domains, including conflict, refugee and displacement, food assistance, healthcare, and economic empowerment, spanning Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Most recently, she worked as a Crisis Operations Specialist at USAID, managing programs in the Middle East and Asia focused on promoting sustainable, peaceful societies in complex political transitions and conflict-prone environments. She currently serves as Chief Technical Adviser at the International Youth Federation (IYF), overseeing the Young Leadership Development Programme across Sudan and Egypt, and is a consultant with Medicines for Humanity, supporting leadership and community engagement programming for frontline health workers.

She has also served as the Executive Director of TEEEM (The Empathic Entrepreneur Equality Mission), an international NGO focused on economic empowerment, education, and healthcare programming. Elise is a published author, a Fulbright Scholar, and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. She completed her MSW at CSSW in 2017 with a focus on social enterprise administration and international social work. She also holds a Master's in Global Affairs from the University of Notre Dame and a BSW from the University of Vermont. She served in the Peace Corps in Botswana for two years, working as a youth development volunteer with a focus on organizational capacity building, HIV prevention and outreach, and gender equality initiatives. It was there that she developed a love of international social work and community-centered practice. She also has experience working in a domestic violence shelter and a residential program for children who experienced trauma.

At Columbia School of Social Work, Elise teaches Advocacy in Social Work Practice and Social Welfare Policy.