Elizabeth Foydel

Elizabeth Foydel is the Private Sponsorship Program Director at IRAP. In this role, Elizabeth leads IRAP’s policy work and advocacy on community sponsorship-based pathways for vulnerable displaced people, with particular focuses on the new U.S. Welcome Corps program for the private sponsorship of refugees, other U.S. sponsorship pathways, and sponsorship pathways abroad. 

Prior to joining IRAP, Elizabeth was a Presidential Fellow at the Open Society Foundations in New York, where she worked on a variety of projects related to human rights, rule of law, and organizational governance.

Elizabeth graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Columbia University (Columbia College) with a B.A. in Political Science and French. She is also a graduate of Stanford Law School, where she participated in Stanford’s IRAP chapter, Rwanda Legal Development Project, Journal of International Law, Human Rights Pro Bono Project, International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic, and Sciences Po exchange program. During law school she interned with the Human Rights Institute and with Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program. She is fluent in French.

Elizabeth is a member of the New York and District of Columbia bars.