Elizabeth G. Ferris

Director, Institute for the Study of International Migration

Research Professor

Elizabeth G. Ferris

Director, Institute for the Study of International Migration

Research Professor

Dr. Elizabeth Ferris is the Director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is also an ISIM Research Professor at Georgetown. She joined ISIM in Fall 2015 after serving for 9 years as a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Brookings Project on Internal Displacement and as an adjunct professor in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. In 2016, she served as senior advisor to the UN Secretary-General in planning the Global Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants which led to the development of the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migrants. From 2019-21, she served as one of four expert advisors to the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement.

Prior to joining Brookings in November 2006, Elizabeth spent 20 years working in the field of international humanitarian response, most recently in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Council of Churches. She has also served as Chair of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), as Research Director for the Life & Peace Institute in Uppsala, Sweden, as Director of the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program in New York. She has been a professor at several U.S. universities and served as a Fulbright professor to the Universidad Autónoma de México in Mexico City. She has written or edited ten books and many articles on humanitarian and human rights issues which have been published in both academic and policy journals. Her current research interests focus on the politics of humanitarian action and on the role of civil society in protecting displaced populations.

Publications