Amy West, Director of Refugee & Migrant Initiatives at the Americans Institute for Research (AIR), is an internationally recognized human rights and refugee expert with twenty years of experience informing, designing and managing qualitative research and technical assistance in challenging emergency and post conflict settings. Currently, Ms. West manages a USAID-funded child protection project focused on evidence based approaches to mitigating abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence against children in vulnerable communities in Haiti. She has published numerous journal articles in the human rights and development fields and spent two years as a Special Advisor on Violence against Women and Girls in sub-Saharan Africa for the beverage alcohol industry. Her applied research work on refugee security and operational security management has been used in training manuals by UNHCR and the Humanitarian Practice Network. She holds a MALD from The Fletcher School, Tufts University, with a Certificate in Human Security.