Jovana Ríos Cisnero

As Executive Director of Women’s Link Worldwide, Jovana works to develop and scale Women’s Link mission by unleashing the power of women and girls to fight for justice, strengthen and transform the feminist strategic litigation ecosystem to break down barriers, challenge oppressive systems, and alter power imbalances by breaking the walls of the legal sphere and bringing in those left out.

Jovana co-founded the Latin America and the Caribbean Youth Alliance, which has catalyzed youth-led advocacy during negotiations around the 20-year review of the Cairo Programme of Action, the adoption of the Montevideo Consensus, and the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, Jovana was a member of the Developing Countries NGO Delegation to the Board of Directors of the Global Fund and has served as a consultant for the United Nations Population Fund. She led a policy and communications unit in the private sector and has worked as Advocacy and Campaigns Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at Save the Children International.

Jovana has received high-level appointments from two UN Secretary-Generals related to the Every Woman Every Child initiative, first to the High-Level Steering Group and later to the Independent Accountability Panel. She also serves as a SheDecides Champion alongside other global leaders pushing for sexual and reproductive rights and gender equality around the world. She is the former Board Chair of Fòs Feminista where she co-led the transformation of the organization to an intersectional feminist alliance.

She has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, postgraduate degrees in Higher Education and Executive Management, and an MBA in Human Resources from the Interamerican University of Panama. She also has a specialization in Public Policy from The George Washington University.

Jovana is an Afro-Indigenous descent woman, born and raised in Santiago de Veraguas, Panama.