Isabel Ortiz is Director of Global Social Justice, a think-tank based in Geneva, as well as Director of the Global Social Justice Program at Joseph Stiglitz’s Initiative for Policy Dialogue, based at Columbia University, New York.
In 2013-2019, she was the Director of the Social Protection Department at the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO, Geneva).
Earlier, she was Associate Director of Policy and Strategy for UNICEF (New York, 2009-2012) and Senior Advisor at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations (New York, 2005-2009).
From 1995-2003, she was a Project Economist and senior official at the Asian Development Bank (ADB, Manila), where she was a founding member of ADB Poverty Reduction Unit.
In 1993-95 she was a researcher at the Department of International Economics of the High-Level Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) and a lecturer at Madrid and Salamanca Universities in Spain. In 1992-93 she worked at the European Commission in Brussels and in 1991 at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC Buenos Aires).