Karen Plafker is a consultant on human rights, with particular expertise in women’s rights. For 10 years, until 2014, she was the Program Director for the Women’s Rights and Reproductive Rights Programs at Wellspring Advisors. Before joining Wellspring in 2004, she was the Deputy Director of the Public Health Program at the Open Society Institute, a 20-person, $20 million program working to advance the health of vulnerable populations in Central/Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. From 1997-1999, she started up and managed a South-South training and technical assistance program in sexual and reproductive health and rights at Profamilia, the leading reproductive health NGO in Colombia.
She has done research and writing in a range of intergovernmental, non-governmental and academic environments, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Harvard School of Public Health.
Karen received her BA from Dartmouth College, and has an MA in International Relations from Yale and an MSc from the Harvard School of Public Health. She speaks Spanish and French.