Bio

Cody Freeman (all pronouns) is a researcher, educator, and activist committed to creating freedom through education for queer youth globally. Their work focuses on driving transformative systems change through actionable strategies at the intersection of academia, civil society, and government systems. Cody is the Founder & CEO of The Global Center – an NGO dedicated to LGBTI+ youth and education globally – and a PhD candidate and course instructor in Comparative and International Development Education at the University of Minnesota. They have researched and written extensively on queer education and LGBTI+ rights, partnering with organizations such as the World Bank on strengthening LGBTIQ-inclusive development strategies; Save the Children as the first SOGIESC Fellow; UK Aid on a global evidence review of LGBT+ inclusive social protection; and most recently co-leading a multi-country, mixed-methods evaluation with FRI and Save the Children for the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).