Elizabeth Leahy Madsen

Elizabeth (Liz) Leahy Madsen has over 20 years of experience designing, implementing, and leading global health programs that bridge research, policy, and practice. From 2022 to 2024, she was the director of PRB’s largest project, MOMENTUM Knowledge Accelerator. She previously led several multiyear partnerships and awards for PRB, including PACE: Policy, Advocacy, and Communication Enhanced for Population and Reproductive Health and Empowering Evidence-Driven Advocacy. Madsen’s technical expertise includes family planning policy and advocacy, political demography, meaningful youth engagement, and the intersections between population and multisectoral development.

She has collaborated with more than 40 partner organizations, co-implementing qualitative policy assessments and advocacy campaigns with youth researchers in five countries, training government counterparts in scenario modeling and communication, and administering grants from public and private funders. The author of more than 50 publications, Madsen holds a master’s degree in international affairs from The George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Knox College.