Our Team

A recognized global thought-leader on LGBTI+ economic issues, Dr. Badgett is professor of economics at UMass Amherst and a co-founder of UCLA’s Williams Institute.

Over more than 30 years, Dr. Badgett has independently advised the World Bank; Open for Business; UNDP; USAID; IDB; ADB; the U.S. State and Treasury Departments; the OECD; global businesses; and many LGBTI+ organizations.

She led the design and implementation of the UNDP LGBTI Inclusion Index. Her latest book is The Economic Case for LGBT Equality: Why Fair and Equal Treatment Benefits Us All (Beacon Press, 2020).

Working with civil society, governments, economic development institutions, and the private sector, Philip seeks to improve LGBTI+ data collection and promote livelihoods by bridging the gulf between people and institutions.

He has worked with leading development agencies like the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, and USAID, as well as with dozens of governments, multinational corporations, and LGBTI+ NGOs in every region of the world.

In the Caribbean region, he has pioneered the collection of LGBTI+ data and convened researchers, advocates, governments, and development organizations to transform that data into better policy.

In a career spanning development finance, human rights, global companies, and non-governmental organizations, Fabrice Houdart has championed the rights and wellbeing of LGBTI+ people around the world.

As a senior country officer at the World Bank, he pioneered that organization’s recognition of LGBTI+ rights as a development issue. He went on to co-author and lead the UN Global LGBTQ+ Standards of Conduct for Business (unfe.org/standards), the largest corporate social responsibility initiative on LGBTI+ issues.

He advises Fortune 500 firms; teaches at Columbia and Georgetown Universities; and volunteers on the boards of several global NGOs.

Kelly Widelska is a proven expert in making large institutions work better for minority communities, including LGBTI+ people.

During her decade at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, she built and led IFC’s economic inclusion program for LGBTI+ people and persons with disabilities. She also served on the World Bank Group’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Task Force and the World Bank Task Force on Disability.

Prior to that, she spent 14 years at EY in knowledge management leadership roles including stints in London and China.

Working in international development and the public and private sectors, Courtney Clark’s career has focused on building high-performing, sustainable organizations.

Previously, she served as a USAID foreign service officer; directed a USAID program on gender and technology; and worked as an HR and operations consultant, advising private and public sector organizations on building leaner, more effective operations.

Earlier in her career, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea and founded a global open geographic data initiative as a member of Peace Corps’ Office of Innovation. She also leads a bisexual & pansexual+ peer support and social group.

Amar Nigam helps develop program plans ranging from inclusive finance platforms to economic inclusion networks to data development.

Previously, they worked at Goldman Sachs in the Global Banking and Markets division, driving management and strategy efforts for the firm and assisting with LGBTI+ network development on its Community Engagement pillar.

They have also served in strategy, finance, and research roles at several other companies including Coca-Cola Hong Kong, Acro Service Corporation, and Advanced Technology Systems. They are a 2025 TIIP Systems-Level Investing Fellow and a 2024 New England Impact Investing Initiative and oikos International Impact Fellow.

Mino Likwasi leverages more than a decade of experience in program management and organization development, including in designing and implementing economic empowerment programs tailored for LGBTI+ communities.

They co-founded WAfE, an LBQ-focused NGO, and serve as a trustee of The Other Foundation. They have previously held diverse roles with Hivos, Family Health International, and the Global Interfaith Network. Additionally, Mino contributed to Outright International’s LBQ Connect Sounding Board.

In their role as CEO and founding consultant at Athena Consulting, Mino has pioneered initiatives in mixed agriculture, real estate development, and financial services provision.

With a deep commitment to advancing socially just, locally grounded approaches to change, Flavio Carrera Verdesoto works at the intersection of gender justice, LGBTIQ+ rights, social policy, and climate resilience across Low- and Middle-Income Countries. He brings more than 14 years of experience throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and has advised UN Women, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and numerous other development agencies on gender-based violence prevention, feminist political ecology, intersectional data systems, evaluation, and inclusive governance.

Flavio holds an MSc in Anthropology and Development from the London School of Economics and received the UNESCO-SENESCYT Gender Equality Prize in 2017.

Manisha Dhakal has pioneered LGBTI+ rights in her native Nepal since 2001, including a pivotal role in the supreme court ruling directing Nepal’s government to implement equal rights for LGBTI+ people.

Currently executive director of Blue Diamond Society, Nepal’s premier LGBTI+ rights organization, she has previously served as president of the Federation of Sexual and Gender Minorities of Nepal; a founding member of the Asia-Pacific Transgender Network; co-chair of ILGA’s Asia Board; and the first trans woman on the Global Fund’s Country Coordinating Mechanism for Nepal.

Currently a senior visiting researcher at the Harvard Law School and the UCLA Williams Institute and a lecturer in law at Harvard, Victor Madrigal-Borloz served from 2018 to 2023 as the UN independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

He has served at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and Court; the Danish Institute for Human Rights; and as Secretary-General of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims.

For his service to LGBTI+ human rights, he has received the Kaleidoscope Trust’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Human Rights Campaign’s Global Equality Award.

Following a long and varied career in public service, Chantale Wong became the first openly lesbian woman to serve as a United States ambassador.

As U.S. ambassador and executive director for the Asian Development Bank, she led ADB to increase its lending capacity by $100 billion over 10 years while retaining its AAA rating. Previous government posts included key roles at NASA and the U.S. Treasury Department.

When she retired for the first time in 2014, Ambassador Wong became a photographer. One of her photographs of the Civil Rights icon Rep. John Lewis was exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution.