Nadine Maenza

IRF Secretariat

Nadine is the President of the IRF Secretariat, an international organization focused on building infrastructure to support the religious freedom movement globally, running the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Roundtable in Washington, DC and in over 30 countries globally. She also serves as a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center.

In May 2022, Nadine finished her second term as a White House appointee on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), serving her last year as Chair.

Because of her strong commitment to advocate for freedom of religious or belief for all communities, she was especially honored by separate awards from both Christian and Muslim communities. In July 2023, she was given the “Humanitarian Award” by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, focusing on her work evacuating the community from Afghanistan. In 2022, she was awarded by Justice for All for “Advocacy for all, especially Muslims.” In 2021, she was awarded the “Cedar of God Award” by In Defense of Christians for her “tireless worker throughout her career for religious freedom for Christians both in the Middle East and globally.” In 2022, Nadine was awarded the IRF Impact Award for current or former government officials at the IRF Summit in Washington, D.C. Nadine gives regular speeches on various religious freedom issues and her writings have been published in numerous publications domestically and internationally.

She currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) and is on the board for both The Sinjar Academy and Freedom Research Foundation. She is a graduate of Penn State University. She is married with three adult children and lives outside of Philadelphia in Chester County, Pennsylvania