Susan M. Blaustein is founder and director of WomenStrong International, a consortium of non-governmental organizations in five countries dedicated to eradicating extreme urban poverty by enabling women and girls to live healthy, fulfilling lives. Prior to starting WSI, she co-founded and directed the Millennium Cities Initiative, a project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University committed to sustainable urban development across sub-Saharan Africa. Blaustein has also served as a senior consultant and analyst with the International Crisis Group, worked with the Coalition for International Justice, and reported on conflict, politics, economics, and social injustice from the Balkans, Southeast Asia and Washington, DC, for such publications as The New Yorker, Harper's, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, The New Republic, and the Los Angeles Times.