Kristina Karakoyun Wilfore

Kristina Wilfore is a seasoned international development, elections and civic advocacy professional who has worked in over 25 countries for more inclusive and responsive democratic movements. She has been on the ground in hotspots such as Ukraine, Russia, Kenya, Turkey, Kosovo and Afghanistan. She has worked hand-in-hand with hundreds of women on their campaigns for higher office and to help break systemic barriers to political participation, designing large-scale election integrity, political party, civil society and counter disinformation programs across the globe. Kristina is Global Democracy Advisor at Reset.Tech, an initiative engaged in programmatic work on technology and democracy. She is co-founder of #ShePersisted, a cross-national initiative to tackle gendered disinformation and online attacks against women in politics, working with policymakers across the globe, some of the world’s most authoritative media outlets and think tanks to ensure that digital harms against women leaders are recognized and addressed as threats to national security, liberal values, and the human rights system. She serves on the Advisory Council of ESIA’s Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs (GEIA) and is on the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace Civil Society Working Group. Under the leadership of the Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics, Kristina is part of the research team for an NSF Convergence Accelerator grant to develop a rapid response system to provide a trauma-informed care system to support journalists and other experts who are targets of online harassment and abuse.
Democracy development, countering disinformation, social media, technology, gender equality, civil society, election law, NGOs, international development
Disinformation, social media, impact on marginalized communities; women’s political participation; online extremism and misogyny
Global Capstone, Elliott School of International Affairs
M.P.A. University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy and Governance; B.A. Washington State University