Suzanne E. Siskel
Anthropology · Harvard University & The Johns Hopkins University · Luce Scholar · Fulbright Scholar
Suzanne E. Siskel is Board Chair of Winrock International, elected to the position in March 2026. A social anthropologist, she has worked in international development and philanthropy for more than four decades, with a career centred on Asia and the Pacific.
She began her career in Indonesia in 1974 as a Luce Scholar, an experience that shaped her focus on Southeast Asian societies and institutions. Over the following decades, she worked as a university lecturer, USAID development advisor, and Fulbright Scholar before moving into institutional philanthropy.
At the Ford Foundation, she served as Representative in Indonesia and the Philippines, followed by Global Director of Community and Resource Development — a role that gave her responsibility for the Foundation's grantmaking strategy across multiple regions. She subsequently moved to The Asia Foundation as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, where she oversaw operations across the Foundation's network of country programmes.
Her career spans health systems, civil society, education, and governance in developing contexts, with particular depth in Southeast Asia. She brings to the Health Action Lab a grounded understanding of how institutional change happens across different political and resource environments.
Role at the Health Action Lab
Siskel advises the Health Action Lab on its Asia-Pacific engagement strategy, cross-geography programme design, and philanthropic partnerships. Her decades of institutional work across Indonesia, the Philippines, and the broader region give HAL direct access to networks and contextual knowledge that are rarely available to health-focused initiatives operating across these geographies.