Keely Badger holds an M.A. in Globalization Studies from Dartmouth College, with a B.A. from the University of San Diego in Cultural Anthropology and Political Science. Her recent scholarship has focused on the role of international organizations and their efforts to champion law and diplomacy around universal human rights, peacekeeping and humanitarian intervention, particularly the work of the United Nations and the Responsibility To Protect Doctrine as an emerging humanitarian norm. Keely is a human rights advocate and a humanist, and believes in the dignity of the human experience and that it will ultimately prevail over hegemony and tyranny, partition and exclusion. She works in the Development & Global Initiatives Division for Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization working in 90+ countries around the world. Keely also serves as Director of Global Partnerships for Social Impact Media Agency (SIMA), an LA-based film organization committed to bringing independent social impact films to underserved communities through the US, Cambodia, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Israel, Liberia, Senegal, Egypt, Peru and Australia. Her work with national and international organizations seeks to advance global awareness, social justice, human rights and humanitarian development by catalyzing creative works of visual storytelling that inspire activism, compassion and social transformation.
In addition, Keely also serves on the board of Neda Nobari Foundation as Director of Programs and Communications, grantmaking to grassroots and indie initiatives that empower the human potential through education, film, and philanthropy. Undertaking a human rights and international development research fellowship at the University of Oxford in 2012, Keely continues to expand her focus on the cultural revitalization of alternative economies within indigenous communities of the Global South, and hopes to eventually merge her academic and professional pursuits through a JD in International Human Rights Law.