Staff: Inform Women, Transform Lives Project

Laura Neuman, J.D.
Senior Advisor, Office of the Vice President of Peace Programs 

In addition to advising on the implementation of the Carter Center’s programming regarding transparency and good governance, Laura Neuman developed and leads the Inform Women, Transform Lives campaign. Inform Women, Transform Lives is being implemented in 35 global cities representing metropolitan populations of more than 215 million people. As part of the campaign, she supports cities in improved service delivery, particularly for women and marginalized populations, and in ensuring women have a voice in international and regional forums.

Neuman developed the innovative Implementation Assessment Tool for access-to-information legislation and the Center’s Women and the Right of Access to Information programming. In 2018, she convened the Inform Women, Transform Lives Conference, which culminated with the Atlanta Declaration for the Advancement of Women’s Right of Access to Information. She previously led Carter Center programming related to transparency in the security sector and access to justice and has assured a gender focus in all programming.

Neuman has written articles, book chapters, and guidebooks on the right of access to information, fostering transparency, and preventing corruption, and has presented at numerous international seminars and conferences. She has served as a consultant to the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, among others.

Prior to joining The Carter Center in August 1999, Neuman was a staff attorney at Legal Action of Wisconsin. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Nandi Vanka
Program Associate

Nandi Vanka joined The Carter Center in October of 2015. She currently works on the Center's Inform Women, Transform Lives project and previously contributed to the Human Rights House project in Democratic Republic of Congo and the Center’s U.S. Elections project. Before coming to the Center, Vanka interned with the White House Council on Women and Girls and volunteered with victims of domestic minor sex trafficking in the metro Atlanta area. She holds bachelor’s degrees in international studies and French studies from Emory University.

Lehn Ellingson
Program Assistant

Lehn Ellingson provides support to the Rule of Law Program’s various international projects, with a primary focus on those in Central America, and the Inform Women, Transform Lives campaign. He joined The Carter Center in 2020 as an intern with the Rule of Law Program before becoming a program assistant in 2021. Prior to joining the Center full time, Ellingson studied at Emory University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in international studies in 2020.