Melanie Nezer

Melanie Nezer is the Women’s Refugee Commission’s vice president for advocacy and external relations. Melanie and her team share WRC’s research and recommendations with policymakers, media, supporters, and the wider public in the US and at the global level to improve the lives and protect the rights of women, children, and youth displaced by conflict and crisis.

Melanie has over 25 years of experience in global refugee and humanitarian policy and advocacy, development, communications, and nonprofit management. She has extensive knowledge of immigration, asylum, and international refugee and humanitarian law through legal practice, drafting legislation and advocating in Washington and internationally, teaching and training, and monitoring refugee programs around the world.

Before joining WRC, Melanie was HIAS’ senior vice president of global public affairs and immigration policy director for the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Before her work in Washington, Melanie was in private legal practice in Miami, Florida, where she specialized in immigration law and criminal defense. She has been quoted extensively in major media outlets and her TED Talk, “The Fundamental Right to Seek Asylum,” has been viewed 2 million times.

Melanie received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her Juris Doctor degree from Boston College Law School.