Isabel Ortiz is director of Global Social Justice, a think tank based in Geneva, and is also director of the Global Social Justice Program at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, based at Columbia University, New York.

Previously, she was the director of the social protection department at the UN’s International Labour Organization (Geneva), associate director of policy and strategy for UNICEF, and senior advisor at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations. Additionally, she was a project economist and senior official at the Asian Development Bank (ADB, Manila) where she was a founding member of the ADB Poverty Reduction Unit.

Isabel was also a researcher at the department of international economics of the High-Level Council of Scientific Research and a lecturer at Madrid University and University of Salamanca (Spain). In 1992–93 she worked at the European Commission in Brussels, and in 1991, at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (Buenos Aires).

Isabel has worked in more than 50 countries in all world regions, providing advisory services to governments and engaging in high-level initiatives at the UN, G20, BRICS, African Union, and Union of South American Nations, among others. Additionally, she actively supports policy and advocacy work of civil society organizations. She was educated in Barcelona and the United Kingdom (MSc and PhD, London School of Economics). She has more than 95 publications translated in several languages.