Jyl Kuczynski Strong is an international development professional with experience working in and across the public and private sectors, including government, non-governmental and multilateral organizations. She currently serves as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for Building Tomorrow, where she forges partnerships and oversees fundraising to scale community-based education programs across Uganda.

Jyl previously served as Policy Advisor and liaison to the World Bank at the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) in Washington, DC, where she helped secure the ICRC’s first-ever grants from the World Bank. Prior to the ICRC, Jyl worked in the US Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM). There, she developed the State Department’s first livelihoods policy for refugees and advanced broader efforts to link short-term relief and longer-term development assistance. In the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis, she served on the White House-led team to help design the World Bank’s global financing facilities for refugees. Prior to PRM, she served in the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, where she helped coordinate multilateral humanitarian policy across State and the US Agency for International Development. She has also served at the US Embassy to Mauritania and US Consulate General in Frankfurt, Germany and was selected as a 2011 Presidential Management Fellow.

Jyl holds a Master of Arts in European Studies and Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts in German and Religious Studies from Indiana University. She speaks English, German, and French.