Vonda Brown

Vonda Brown is a division director for the Open Society Foundations’ work in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Brown joined Open Society in 2005 to expand its grant making in Latin America. Currently, she oversees strategies to promote democracy and human rights. This work includes developing approaches to protect human rights, promoting transparent and accountable governments, and encouraging government reformers and civil society activists to experiment with technology, culture, and media to strengthen democracy and human rights. Brown has been instrumental in coordinating Open Society’s collective work in Latin America on Cyberpolitics, disinformation, and propaganda. She has also had significant involvement with the Sustainable Development Agenda and the Central America and Mexico Migration Alliance. 

Prior to her work with the Foundations, Brown oversaw the transparency and anticorruption strategies of Partners of the Americas and the Inter-American Democracy Network. In Nicaragua, she held a number of management and leadership positions with a children’s rights organization, environmental youth movements, municipal governments, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.

Brown has an MA in public policy and management from the University of Pittsburgh, a certificate in social administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in rural development from the University of Alaska.