Olga Petryniak

Ms. Petryniak is a senior director, strategist and resilience specialist with 16 years’ work experience working with local and national governments, communities and the private sector in conflict management, climate change adaptation (CCA), natural resource management (NRM), market systems development (MSD), good governance, and legal protection. In her current role, she provides strategic direction and technical oversight to Mercy Corps’ $300+ million global resilience portfolio across four regions, managing a team of Regional Resilience Directors and technical specialists to achieve impact at scale and advance global influence. Prior to her current role, she was the Regional Resilience Director for South and Southeast Asia with Mercy Corps, where she led advocacy, fundraising, and representation for Mercy Corps across the region. Ms. Petryniak has extensive experience managing large conflict and resilience programs in the Horn of Africa, including as Chief of Party for the $14 million Strengthening Institutions for Peace and Development Program and Deputy Chief of Party for the $63 million USAID-funded Pastoralist Resilience Improvement through Market Expansion (PRIME) initiative. Ms. Petryniak excels at connecting strategy with strong systems and operational models, and nurturing partnerships across government, civil society, donor and private sector stakeholders. Ms. Petryniak is a skilled trainer, facilitator, mobilizer, and mentor, with extensive experience supporting consensus-building processes, capacity enhancement, and transformational change initiatives across diverse interest groups and within her organization.