Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Asia Foundation has announced the appointment of Diana Fernandez to Deputy Country Representative in Mongolia. In this capacity, she will provide leadership support and oversee a wide range of programs and projects on urban services; economic development; water, sanitation and health; trafficking in persons and women’s empowerment.

Ms. Fernandez has been with the Foundation in different capacities for almost a decade, most recently serving as the head of the Program Support Unit for the Timor-Leste office as well as the coordinator for research and monitoring and evaluation for the office’s Nabilan: Ending Violence Against Women program.

Initially joining the Foundation as a Junior Associate in 2007, Ms. Fernandez worked for the Women’s Empowerment program where she provided key program support and conducted research to find linkages between women’s issues and the environment. In 2008, she became a Program Officer for the Washington, DC office where she supported coordination of grantees visiting Washington, DC under the Asian American Exchange program.

Ms. Fernandez also provided substantive program support to the Foundation’s Afghanistan office to revise the Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs communications strategy, as well as drafting a large public-sector proposal to enhance the capacity of subnational governments. Between 2009 – 2013, she was a program officer in the Foundation’s Nepal office where she had a diverse portfolio that included: managing a DFID funded project to mobilize 50 international election observers and more than 8000 national election observers for Nepal’s 2013 Constituent Assembly Elections; managing trafficking in persons projects and managing a gender-based violence research project under the Office of the Prime Minister of Nepal.

From 2004-2006, Ms. Fernandez served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, as a development coordinator in Hotont soum of Arkhangai aimag. She also served as co-director of Friends of Mongolia, a voluntary organization based in Washington, DC that among other things works to facilitate educational grants for disadvantaged youth in Mongolia.

Ms. Fernandez holds a master’s degree in International Development from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom and bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.

The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia. Informed by six decades of experience and deep local expertise, our programs address critical issues affecting Asia in the 21st century—governance and law, economic development, women’s empowerment, environment, and regional cooperation, reports the Asia Foundation.