Laura Bramon Hassan is a global development and humanitarian expert with over twenty years of experience working with governments, international organizations, private philanthropists, and diverse civic, tribal, and faith leaders in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, the Middle East, and the United States. Laura combines transformational leadership with astute cross-cultural instincts to lead grassroots and global initiatives empowering children and strengthening families, communities, and institutions. She has testified before the U.S. Congress Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and spoken at Harvard University, the University of Notre Dame, and the Religious Freedom Institute on topics including human trafficking, child labor, child marriage, and genocide.
At World Vision, Laura led global programs addressing child sex trafficking in India, Bangladesh, and Guatemala, child marriage in Mozambique, female genital mutilation in Kenya, child labor in the Philippines, maternal and child health and literacy in Afghanistan, and early childhood education in Jordan’s Syrian refugee communities ($50.4 million). She supported USAID, US Department of Labor-ILAB, US Department of State, and private donor grants and acquisitions totaling over $250 million and benefitting more than 1.5 million children and youth around the world.
At the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Trafficking in Persons (OTIP), Laura served as liaison to the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking and oversaw the National Human Trafficking Resource Center.
Laura began her career as a journalist at BBC-Cambridgeshire; KCUR-FM, NPR’s Kansas City affiliate; Cronkite-Ward Productions, and the documentary film production company of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith. She holds a Master’s Degree from the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.
