Sundaa Bridgett-Jones is the Chief Partnership and Advocacy Officer for the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, a new enterprise to accelerate and scale equitable energy transitions in low- and middle-income countries. She leads a new partnership construct for the Alliance, spearheaded by The Rockefeller Foundation, the IKEA Foundation, and the Bezos Earth Fund, in support of ending energy poverty and spurring just energy transitions in developing and emerging economies.
Prior to this role, Bridgett-Jones served as the Managing Director for Policy & Coalitions at The Rockefeller Foundation. Across her portfolio priorities, she has executed a strategy realizing institutional aims to grow coalitions for pressing issues such as Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, equity, and economic opportunity, financing development, and U.S.-China relations.
Bridgett-Jones has over 25 years of experience designing and executing high-impact global initiatives. Between 2010 and 2012, she led the Office of Policy Planning and Public Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in groundbreaking advocacy on internet and religious freedoms. As a member of the White House National Security Staff interagency committee, she helped develop the Open Government Partnership, a featured public-private partnership spearheaded by the Obama administration and the Government of Brazil.
Previously, Bridgett-Jones managed c-suite affairs at the United Nations Department of Political Affairs and devised preventive diplomacy plans in South Asia. As an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, she analyzed, researched, and wrote about U.S. foreign policy and democracy promotion after a decade of leading governance initiatives at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Bridgett-Jones served in the Foreign Service with USAID in the Middle East, Southern Africa, and Central Asia — her final assignment was as an USAID representative to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq, where she set up the first Transitional National Assembly.
She holds a master’s degree in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and African studies from Georgetown University.
Authored Content
Mar 31 2022 Perspective U.S. Support for a Post-Pandemic Recovery Must Prioritize Energy Equity In January, journalist Jill Filipovic published a deep look at how Covid-19 has affected the lives of adolescent girls in Kenya. For them, the past couple of years have been filled not only with worries about a virus that has killed millions, but also with unwanted marriages, unintended pregnancies, and unexpected setbacks to their education and […]
Sep 10 2020 Perspective A Moment for Deeper Solidarity in The Women’s Movement Immense opportunity and exceptional challenge. In a nutshell, this is what the women’s movement is faced with now. The opportunity? As we meet this unimagined moment of a Covid-19 crisis paired with a period of institutional and historical racial reckoning, we have a real chance to both deepen and broaden our collective conversation about how […]
Apr 07 2020 Perspective Climate Justice in the Time of Covid-19: 5 Lessons From Women and Girls Leading the Fight Covid-19 is a health, economic and social crisis, but it also holds out an opportunity for the world to move forward into a more equitable and green recovery. Women climate leaders sounded notes of hope, solidarity, and urgency during a webinar convened by the Skoll World Forum in partnership with Connected Women Leaders and The […]
Jan 16 2020 Perspective In the Year of Women’s Rights Anniversaries, Now is the Time to Make Foreign Policy Feminist Mexico became the latest country to launch a distinctly “feminist” foreign policy, an approach to foreign relations aimed at advancing gender equality, promoting peace and combatting the most egregious challenges of our day: climate change, gender-based violence, migration. This approach is new and bold —with only five countries that have announced feminist foreign policies—but we […]
Nov 07 2018 Perspective What Can the Paris Peace Forum Do To Promote Good Governance? One-hundred years ago marked the end of one of the longest and deadliest armed conflicts in history. The First World War killed tens-of-millions, set off a chain reaction of revolution and fragility, and created the conditions for the deadliest influenza pandemic in history. Next week marks the armistice of the Great War, with centenary commemorations […]