Jessica Horn is Regional Director-East Africa at the Ford Foundation. She oversees the foundation’s grantmaking in the region and leads the Nairobi-based team. Jessica has two decades of experience in the work of advancing justice and building both the knowledge base and practice towards inclusive democracies—with women’s rights as a focal commitment—primarily in Africa. This includes 16 years in the philanthropic sector. Jessica co-designed early models of participatory philanthropy, and served as Director of Programmes at the African Women’s Development Fund where she oversaw a step-change in grantmaking scale and program focus under a  futures-based strategic plan. Her analysis has been published in both academic and media platforms. Jessica is currently a board member of the Partnership for Digital Access in Africa and Advisory Board member of Impact Investing Kenya. She is a graduate of Smith College and the London School of Economics.