Liz Vance builds systems that transform disruption into opportunity for young people. As IYF’s Senior Director of Innovation and Design, she leads IYF’s innovation and design work—spotting signals, shaping distinctive solutions grounded in evidence and experience, and building the tools and design leadership that help what works attract investment, travel, and last. 

For Liz, youth employment is the most powerful lever for change. A good job brings more than a paycheck: purpose, dignity, belonging, and the power to shape a future. She has seen it from schools to supply chains and ministries to markets. When young people secure good jobs, families, employers, communities, and economies grow stronger. When young people work, everything works better. 

Before joining IYF, Liz led initiatives across Latin America and the United States that strengthened institutions and expanded opportunity—from women’s entrepreneurship in Mexico to workforce reform in U.S. cities. She is known for finding patterns in messy systems and bringing unlikely partners together to turn insight into action. 

A published author, speaker at global forums, and advisor on systems change and workforce development, Liz holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA from UC Berkeley. Fluent in Spanish, she can usually be found in the Colorado mountains. Her ideal day? Family, friends, a hard climb, a wicked problem, and an unlikely path forward.