Genna Byrd
Genna Byrd is Senior Manager of Corporate Partnerships at Plan International USA. She graduated from Sussex with an MA in Gender and Development in 2013.
Sussex challenged me to think critically about international development” Genna Byrd
What fuelled your passion for human rights and encouraged you to undertake Gender and Development?
Gender has been important to me since I was young. I was raised in a diverse neighborhood by a mother supporting two children on a strict budget, which helped shape an understanding of inequality that went beyond gender and also included socio-economics and ethnicity. I also have a younger brother and I became aware pretty early on that he was permitted to do things I wasn’t. Even as a seven-year-old, this felt wrong. These experiences fueled my passion for gender and sparked an awareness of injustice.
Once I became aware of inequalities, I felt compelled to act. I volunteered with local nonprofit organizations throughout high school and college, completed a fellowship studying women’s participation in elected office in Costa Rica, and moved to Hawaii to work on social justice issues for Native Hawaiians after my undergraduate studies. The Gender and Development program combined my passion for gender, different cultures, and social impact. It was a natural point to tie my past and present together and it helped give me the tools to launch a career in international development.
How did your experience at Sussex enhance your passion?
Sussex and IDS challenged me to think critically about international development in ways that were honestly disorienting and uncomfortable at the time but have paid dividends in my career and life after graduation. Thanks to Sussex and IDS, I’ve become a more analytical and critical thinker. The program gave me an awareness and framework to assess development interventions holistically—not just from an implementor’s perspective—which is immensely important both morally and for project sustainability. I was drawn to IDS for the truly international composition of its student body. I benefited from learning not only from professors but also from the lived experiences of my peers, and I now have a global network of colleagues.
What did you do directly after graduating? What do you do right now? What plans do you have for the future?
After graduating, I moved to New York City worked for what was New York’s only statewide LGBT advocacy organization. There, I contributed to a range of issues and I’m especially proud of my work to fund statewide health assessments and stronger adoption protections for LGBT New Yorkers. My organization also added support to the successful charge to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.
I have since moved to Washington, DC, and I now work as a Senior Manager of Corporate Partnerships at Plan International USA. Here, I help create projects—especially those focused on girls’ and women’s rights—for corporate partners including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and more. In my free time, I am a photographer and also run a blog (www.startdc.co) focused on underrepresented entrepreneurs in Washington, DC. In the future, I’d like to build on my work creating social impact with the private sector and start a social enterprise or business.