Jessie Tannenbaum is a program director and technical expert with 18 years of experience in international human rights and rule of law. She currently manages ABA ROLI’s portfolio of programs in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia as well as regional human rights initiatives throughout Asia and the Pacific. A lawyer by training, she is a subject-matter expert on human rights and justice system strengthening, with particular focus on freedom of religion and belief and on legal profession development. Her professional experience includes designing, managing, implementing, and evaluating donor-funded human rights and rule of law development programs; developing methodology for and implementing evaluations of justice institutions and programs; and leading strategic planning, change management, and capacity development for civil society and justice sector institutions.
Before joining the Asia and the Pacific Division, Jessie spent nearly 12 years in ABA ROLI's Research, Evaluation, and Learning Division, including as the Director of ABA ROLI’s International Justice Sector Education and Training Program from 2015-2020. Jessie has led numerous projects in Asia, Latin America, Europe and Eurasia, and the Middle East focused on judicial reform, combatting public corruption, criminal justice reform, and legal profession development. She was the principal or co-author of more than a dozen ABA ROLI evaluations of judiciaries, bar associations, prosecutorial services, and penal systems and developed qualitative research methodologies to assess criminal detention procedure, the criminal defense bar, anti-human trafficking laws, and judicial training. Prior to joining ABA ROLI, Jessie was a legal fellow at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She has a B.A. in French and International Studies from the University of Denver and a J.D. and LL.M. in International Human Rights Law from the University of Notre Dame Law School, and is fluent in English, Spanish, and French.