Lyric Thompson is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this capacity, she leads the institution’s formulation of evidence-based policy recommendations and oversees ICRW’s advocacy efforts with the U.S. Government and internationally. Lyric brings more than ten years of experience in global gender and development issues including women, peace and security; women’s economic empowerment; violence against women; child marriage and adolescent girls’ issues. Lyric leads or is a member of a number of advocacy coalitions on women’s rights issues, including the Coalition for a Feminist Foreign Policy in the United States, Girls Not Brides USA, the Coalition for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality, the Coalition to End Gender-Based Violence Globally, the U.S. Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security and the Coalition for Adolescent Girls. She is on the Editorial Board of Apolitical and writes regularly on gender and foreign policy for outlets, such as Ms., Foreign Policy, Devex, The Hill, Thomson-Reuters Foundation and openDemocracy. In August 2019, Lyric was nominated by Governor Cooper to the North Carolina Council for Women; she is also on the board of the advocacy organization North Carolina Women United.

Previously, Lyric served for five years as a primary expert and strategist for Amnesty International USA’s women’s human rights program, as senior policy manager at Women for Women International, and as a project manager for overseas development contracts at DAI. Thompson is a Phi Beta Kappa alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and of the Bard College Program on Globalization and International Affairs.