Lydia is a senior humanitarian and development leader with over 15 years of progressive leadership experience across complex, volatile, and stable contexts. She has a strong track record of advancing principled humanitarian action, organisational transformation, and sustainable development through strategic leadership, operational excellence, and collaborative partnerships.

She leads the design and execution of multi-year country and regional strategies that respond to rapidly evolving humanitarian and development landscapes while aligning with organisational priorities, donor expectations, and community aspirations. Her leadership approach combines strategic foresight, adaptive management, and a strong commitment to accountability, innovation, and impact.

Lydia has extensive experience leading high-performing, cross-functional teams and fostering organisational cultures that prioritise collaboration, inclusion, learning, and results. She is skilled in navigating complexity, leading change management processes, and aligning operational decision-making with organisational mission, values, and long-term sustainability goals.

Working closely with country offices, support offices, donors, government stakeholders, and partners, she co-creates adaptive and context-driven approaches that strengthen programmatic relevance, operational effectiveness, and institutional resilience. She brings experience in partnership engagement, stakeholder coordination, and influencing strategic direction across diverse environments.

She is particularly drawn to leadership roles where ambiguity is high, stakes are significant, and disciplined strategy is essential to protect mission integrity, people, and organisational sustainability. Passionate about empowering teams, Lydia is recognised for building trust, developing leadership capacity, and driving high performance to achieve transformative impact for vulnerable communities. She got the regional leader’s excellence award for exemplary leadership of her team in driving innovation within and beyond the National Offices Strategy Refresh Program in 2023.