aBOUT aUBREY
Aubrey Menard brings a diverse skill set to solving big problems. She’s worked on democracy and governance issues in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, Central America, and the United States. From rehabilitating landmine survivors in Nicaragua to promoting the rights of LGBTQ people in Mongolia to pushing for greater transparency in oil, gas, and mining, her work truly has a global impact.
Aubrey is an expert on democracy, political transitions, and elections. She’s been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Politico, the South China Morning Post, Pacific Standard, New America, Ms. magazine and more.
Aubrey earned an MPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor’s degree from Smith College. She is a Luce Scholar, Critical Language Scholar (Russian), and a Truman National Security Project Fellow.
Democracy & Elections
Aubrey got her start working in U.S. campaign politics. As an EMILY’s List Campaign Corps Fellow, she was trained in the nuts and bolts of running a successful political campaign before being deployed to a competitive district in Michigan. Having worked as senior staff on several successful political campaigns, Aubrey is well equipped to train aspiring activists and politicians on how to engage in the democratic process.
Aubrey’s taken her election work global and frequently observes international elections. She’s participated in missions to Ukraine, Belarus, the Kyrgyz Republic, Georgia, Azerbaijan, North Macedonia, and the United States.
Energy Governance
Aubrey’s graduate thesis sought to understand how oil, gas, and mining affect countries’ democratic development. In answering this question, she conducted quantitative and qualitative research, posing questions to industry, government, and civil society leaders. She has presented this research to audiences throughout the world.
As a policy advisor to Mongolia’s National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, she joined with allied organizations to bring industry best practices in extractive governance to the Chamber’s members. She also worked with the Chamber to promote the country’s non-mined exports.
Aubrey also worked on energy governance in Deloitte’s emerging markets practice. There, she helped the United States join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the U.S. Department of State to implement 39 energy governance projects in 34 countries, and the U.S. Agency for International Development to develop a roadmap for reducing corruption in Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas enterprises.
Diversity & Inclusion
Aubrey is currently working with the Natural Resources Governance Institute (NRGI) to understand how the legal frameworks governing the oil, gas, and mining sectors in 12 countries affect women and other marginalized groups. You can learn more about the project here.
Aubrey serves on the board of directors of Mongolia’s LGBT Center and is deeply committed to the promotion of human rights globally. She collaborated with several international NGOs to open a women's business center and incubator in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, she worked with a local NGO to promote women-owned business as suppliers in the country’s mining operations.
Aubrey is passionate about the power of youth activism and is the author of Young Mongols: Forging Democracy in the Wild, Wild East (Penguin Random House, 2020) and the creator and producer of the web series by the same name. The series enjoyed widespread popularity and culminated in a standing-room only discussion that was broadcast live to over 10,000 viewers.
Aubrey also volunteered and worked for many years on landmine survivor rehabilitation in Central America. She has implemented programs, given lectures, raised funds, and curated photo exhibitions to raise awareness of this critical issue.