Ilwad Elman has over four years of experience working in human rights and community development. Currently, she serves as the Director of Programs and Development for a human rights nonprofit organization. Her key areas of focus are the socio-economic reintegration of children and youth disassociated from armed forces and groups and supporting survivors of sexual and gender based violence. She also leads various coordination groups in south and central Somalia to improve service delivery amongst the vast number of humanitarian actors, strengthening their referral and cooperation system, enhancing information sharing, and ensuring the civil society's initiatives are in cohesion with the federal government's action plans. Upon returning from the Washington Fellowship, Ilwad intends to apply knowledge and information acquired to change public policy to support the most vulnerable including women and youth, enhance social support services, and continue to create livelihood opportunities for the marginalized minority.