Ama Francis

Ama Francis is developing IRAP’s strategy, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), on expanding legal protection for climate displaced people as the Climate Displacement Project Strategist. 

Ama is also a non-resident fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.

Prior to joining IRAP, Ama was an Open Society Foundations consultant and the 2018-2021 Climate Law Fellow at the Sabin Center, where they developed legal solutions to climate displacement and served on the Advisory Board of the Platform on Disaster Displacement and the Steering Committee of the Climigration Network. Ama’s work at the Sabin Center also focused on developing countries, building on prior expertise as a legal consultant to Dominica’s Ministry of Health and Environment. Ama is the author of multiple academic and policy papers on climate displacement, and has presented their research at the World Bank, Clinton Global Initiative Action Network, United Nations Development Program, and UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

Ama received their J.D. from Yale Law School, where they were a student director of Immigration Legal Services. A native Dominican, Ama received a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Harvard University, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. 

Ama is a member of the New York bar.