Lindsay Coates is the president of InterAction, overseeing all management issues and institutional outreach to InterAction members and partners. A life-long advocate for human dignity, Lindsay currently serves on the steering committee of the World Bank Global Partnership for Social Accountability, the executive committee for Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), and the boards of Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) and United State Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC). She also served on the Obama administration’s task force on Global Poverty, was a Trustee for her alma mater the University of the South at Sewanee, and a board member for the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project and the Global Heath Council.
Before joining InterAction in 2008, she was the COO of Population Action International, a leading international NGO advocating for access to family planning services. Prior to her work in the nonprofit sector, Lindsay practiced civil rights law in various capacities. She began her career in Mississippi, and then served as chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Education, and an equal employment opportunity attorney at the National Gallery of Art.
From 2008-2009, Lindsay was a nonresident fellow of Seminar XXI, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for International Studies. She holds a JD from the University of Mississippi, a B.A. magna cum laude from Sewanee, and has studied at the London School of Economics.