Nora O'Connell
Associate Vice President, Public Policy & Advocacy
Save the Children
Nora O’Connell leads Save the Children’s Public Policy & Advocacy Department, which is responsible for Save the Children’s advocacy work to shape US foreign policy on international humanitarian and development issues, including child survival, aid effectiveness and Post-2015. She has also plays a leadership role within the Save the Children global movement, spearheading global efforts around priority moments such as UNGA, the Camp David G8 and the Child Survival Call to Action.
Prior to joining Save the Children, she spent nearly a decade helping to build Women Thrive Worldwide as the leading NGO shaping US policy on global women’s issues, serving as Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs. Women Thrive received InterAction’s Mildred Leet award for their advocacy to advance gender integration within Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) as an essential tool for achieving economic growth and poverty reduction. She served as deputy campaign manager for Chellie Pingree’s U.S. Senate campaign and, prior to that, led the Women and the Economy program at the Center for Policy Alternatives, where she drove a 35-state campaign working with state legislators and grassroots advocates to advance a progressive policy agenda. She also worked at the Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC), where she helped advance better child welfare policies through strategic communications. She has been a spokesperson on various issues in national and local media, including NPR, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Hill. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and now lives in the District of Columbia, where she hopes to one day to have full voting representation in Congress.