Varina Winder

Background

About Varina Winder

Varina is the co-founder of the Arch Collaborative, a strategic initiative focused on bridging ideas and action to defend and advance gender equality globally. Until January 2025, she was the Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff in the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues (S/GWI) at the Department of State. For four years, she oversaw the office's policy and strategy development, partnerships, White House engagement, and strategic operations. She also led three distinct teams covering gender-based violence, climate, girls' rights, multilateral affairs, policy planning, Congressional affairs, and public affairs and was the Ambassador's senior counselor. Prior, she led global partnerships and strategic engagement for Family Planning 2020, a partnership housed at the United Nations Foundation, which aims to expand access to family planning information, services, and supplies to an additional 120 million women and girls. She was previously its Chief of Staff.She had rejoined government having served previously as Senior Policy Advisor in S/GWI, where she advised on gender-based violence, women’s and girls’ health, and multilateral affairs. She has also worked in the office of the Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, and on the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration's Gender and Youth team. She began her career as a policy analyst for the Alliance for Children and Families and as legislative aide to her hometown Congressman.Varina holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Bachelors’ degrees in English and Spanish from Georgetown University.