Elizabeth Andersen

Elizabeth Andersen is the director of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative. She joined the ABA ROLI in September 2014. She has more than 20 years of experience in international law, international human rights and rule of law development. She previously served for eight years as executive director and executive vice president of the American Society of International Law; for three years as director of ABA ROLI’s Europe and Eurasia Division (previously known as ABA CEELI); and for eight years at Human Rights Watch, as a researcher, as director of advocacy and, ultimately, as executive director of its Europe and Central Asia Division. Andersen began her legal career in clerkships with Judge Kimba M. Wood of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and with Judge Georges Abi-Saab of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She is an expert in international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law, and has taught these subjects as an adjunct professor at the American University Washington College of Law. Andersen received a B.A. from Williams College, an M.P.A. from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Williams College, and on the governing and advisory boards of several international non-profit organizations.