Lynn Monzer was the deputy director of empowerME at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, where she focuses on the WIn Fellowship Program.

Monzer is a gender-equality professional, consultant, instructor, and social entrepreneur who has worked with think tanks, nonprofits, and startups. Monzer focuses on improving the lives of women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by increasing their labor-force participation and fostering female-led entrepreneurship. She holds a PhD focused on female entrepreneurship in the MENA region. She was previously a lead research analyst at the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program and worked to identify policy gaps that contribute to low women’s economic participation and entrepreneurship in MENA. She is also a global fellow at the Wilson Center. Previously, Monzer founded GenDev Consulting to help organizations foster opportunities for women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship in the MENA region; she also led workshops for organizations including Google Developer Groups, the Rowad Foundation, the University of Maryland, the Creo Incubator, and Al-Sahm Women. Monzer was also a strategist at Localized, a mentorship social enterprise based in Washington DC, and a manager at Pinpay, a fintech based in Lebanon. Monzer is also the founder of Hokouki, a nonprofit organization that empowers women and girls in the MENA region by providing easier access to laws and regulations that affect them.