Ending sexual violence against children | Policy & psychology with Dr. Daniela Ligiero

Daniela Ligiero, PhD, is the Executive Director and CEO of Together for Girls, a global, public-private partnership dedicated to ending violence against children, especially sexual violence against girls. The partnership includes five UN agencies, the governments of the U.S. & Canada, several private sector organizations and more than 20 country governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, working together to generate comprehensive data and solutions to this public health and human rights epidemic. Dr. Ligiero also serves as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. 

Before she joined Together for Girls, she served as the VP of Girls and Women’s Strategy at the UN Foundation and developed the foundation’s gender integration strategy. In addition, she spent over 5 years at the U.S. Department of State where she led the integration of gender issues into all foreign policy and investments in global health—working with over 70 countries and over $1 billion in investments. She helped develop the first ever International U.S. Government Strategy to End Gender-Based Violence. 

Dr. Ligiero also served in leadership roles at UNICEF, as Chief of HIV and then as Senior Program Officer in UNICEF Brazil. In addition, she has held positions at the World Bank and the US Senate, and has worked directly with survivors of sexual assault in a variety of settings. She is also a survivor of sexual violence herself, and has been speaking publicly about her story for the last decade. She earned her PhD in counseling & community psychology from UMD, College Park, ranked the #1 program in the U.S. Dr. Ligiero is fluent in 4 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish and French.

See the Keep Kids Safe U.S. National Blueprint to End Sexual Violence Against Children and Adolescents (launched Nov. 18, 2021).

In this episode:

1. What do you do as the CEO of Together for Girls?
2. What is advocacy, and how is it helping to end sexual violence?
3. If you could implement any policies right now for prevention and healing, what would they be?
4. What barriers do you face as you work to change policy ?
5. How did you learn to harness the power of storytelling to further your organization’s mission?
6. Sexual violence - prevalence
7. How did your interest in psychology evolve?
8. Why did you choose to pursue your PhD in counseling and community psychology?
9. Why did you decide not to pursue clinical work? How does that training still help you today?
10. Clinical vs. counseling psychology
11. Using your psychology degree for policy change
12. As a survivor yourself, how did you cope with counseling survivors of sexual violence in your training?
13. What was it like to work on Capitol Hill?
14. How did you help develop an HIV response program for the U.S. Department of State?
15. Being the HIV lead for UNICEF in Brazil and then the senior gender advisor for the Department of State
16. What does your daily life look like at Together for Girls?
17. What skills are you using every day? 
18. Advice for audience members interested in psychology, policy, and social justice
19. What skill, quality, or general factor has served you no matter where you went in life? 

 
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Music by: Adam Fine