Amanda Fernandez is the Deputy Director of WRI's Food, Land and Water Program. In this role, she supports global and country offices fundraise for and technically manage their programs, provides overall management advice to program leadership (financial and operational) and contributes to WRI's research, communications and thought leadership efforts. She brings more than 30 years of experience in domestic and international development to the role, having worked in domestic philanthropy (the Annie E. Casey Foundation); as a Deputy Country Director and Regional Technical Advisor for Small Enterprise Development for Catholic Relief Services in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe; as an Economic Growth officer in USAID's West Africa Regional Office in Accra; and as a Project Manager, Deputy Chief of Party, Chief of Party and Project Director of a dozen donor-funded grants, cooperative agreements and contracts overseas and in the U.S.

Prior to joining WRI, Amanda spent 16 years at Palladium, an international development consulting firm, holding assignments in Quito, Bogota, and their Washington, DC offices. In recent years, she built Palladium's Finance and Investment practice, founded Palladium's Colombia country office and helped start Palladium's Natural Capital practice, where she provided technical assistance and created inclusive financing facilities for private and government clients. In her last role for Palladium, she served as the Chief of Party of the $250M CATALYZE program, USAID's largest blended finance mechanism, leading a team of 130 staff globally to create inclusive finance facilities in 45 countries to support the U.S.' contribution to achieving the United Nations' sustainable development goals.

Amanda holds a B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a M.A. in International Development and Latin American Studies from American University.

She lives in NW Washington, DC with her husband, Chris, children Elias (20) and Violet (17), and dog, Molly the Border Collie.