Lucy Lake serves as Director of Global Engagement for the Yidan Prize Foundation, where she supports the development of the Foundation’s global strategy and community, and mentors the senior leadership team. As a 2020 Yidan Prize for Education Development Laureate, Lucy knows from firsthand experience the transformative potential of the Yidan Prize and is committed to realizing this potential globally towards its mission of creating a better world through education. 

Lucy is the former CEO of CAMFED, an organization dedicated to girls’ education and women’s leadership in Africa. Lucy joined CAMFED in 1994, shortly after it was founded, and led its major growth to support millions of girls through school and establish a graduate network of women leaders, the CAMFED Association, now more than 250,000 strong and at the vanguard of a growing pan-African movement for girls’ education and gender equality. 30 years on, Lucy stepped aside as CEO and has passed the reins to Angie Murimirwa, fellow Yidan Prize laureate and one of the first graduates of CAMFED’s support for girls’ education. 

A founding member and former Chair of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, Lucy has served on the High-Level Steering Group of the Education Commission’s Workforce Initiative, and the Advisory Board of the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report. Lucy holds a degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University and is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College.