Ama Francis is developing the International Refugee Assistance Project’s climate strategy, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council, as the Climate Displacement Project Strategist. Ama is also a non-resident fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.

Ama brings almost a decade of experience to the task of expanding legal protection for climate displaced people. They have presented at expert forums organized by the World Bank, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Development Program,
Kaldor Centre, and Clinton Global Initiative, among others. Ama’s work and writing has also appeared in multiple publications, including the Harvard Environmental Law Review, NPR, and CNN.

Their commitment to climate displacement stems from lived experience –Ama’s own family was displaced by an environmental disaster.
Prior to joining IRAP, Ama was an Open Society Foundations consultant and the 2018-2021 Climate Law Fellow at the Sabin Center, where they developed legal solutions to climate displacement and served on the Advisory Board of the Platform on Disaster Displacement and the Steering Committee of the Climigration Network. Ama also advised small island governments as a UN climate negotiator and a legal consultant to Dominica’s Ministry of Health and Environment.

Ama received their J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Harvard University, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the New York bar.