Our people

Lara Fergus (any pronouns) is the Research Manager at ILGA World, bringing over 20 years’ experience translating research and activist knowledge into legislative and policy change, funding, and institutional accountability.

Lara has a strong interest in cross-movement work, especially across feminist, gender-based violence prevention and LGBTI spaces, and has sought to bring this into a range of senior leadership roles, including: Co-Director, with Muthoni Muriithi, of the Accelerator for GBV Prevention; Director of Research, Knowledge and Advocacy at Mama Cash; and Director of Policy and Evaluation at Our Watch, Australia. Lara has led major legal and policy monitoring projects with organisations such as Amnesty International and the EU/UN Spotlight Initiative, and has held a number of strategic policy and advisory roles with governments and UN agencies.

Lara holds a PhD (Victoria University), a Master of Public and International Law – Human Rights (Melbourne), and a Master of Arts in Women’s Studies (Deakin/Exeter).