Contributor

Anne Goddard

Anne Lynam Goddard is president and CEO of ChildFund International, a child-focused international development organization that works to address the underlying conditions that prevent children who live in poverty from achieving their full potential.

As president, Goddard leads a strategy that expands and deepens ChildFund’s efforts worldwide. Through her leadership, ChildFund has helped to enhance the lives of children and communities on five continents, working to improve children’s health, education, economic condition, opportunity and protection. The organization is a founding member of the ChildFund Alliance, a network of 11 organizations that serves children in more than 50 countries and advocates worldwide for the protection and well-being of all children. As a child, Anne immigrated with her family from Ireland to the United States. She worked in Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer, living in a mud house in a small, remote village and traveling the desert on a motorbike. Her experiences in poor communities led her to focus her career on international development. After earning a master’s degree in public health, with an international health focus, Anne went on to live and work overseas for almost 20 years in Somalia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Egypt. “I learned that poverty isn’t something you can fully convey in a photo,” she says. “It’s the sights and sounds and smells – it’s the touch and feel. It’s even the taste.” Anne met and married her British husband in Kenya, where their son was born, and they later adopted a daughter from Indonesia. As a global citizen, she has a deep commitment to working toward a world that values and protects the rights of all, particularly children.