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Chief Advocacy Officer Lara Pukatch joined Miriam’s Kitchen in June 2014. She has over 15 years of experience as a nonprofit advocacy professional with expertise in empowering vulnerable populations, leading coalitions, and facilitating large-scale institutional change. Lara oversees Miriam’s Kitchen’s advocacy work to increase local housing resources, improve broken systems at the root cause of homelessness, and elevate the leadership of individuals with lived experience.

Lara also oversees the Miriam’s Kitchen Speaker’s Bureau and our Agents of Change initiative to elevate the leadership of guests across the organization. Before joining Miriam’s Kitchen, Lara held a variety of positions in international and local women’s rights organizations. She holds a master’s degree in International Affairs and Development from George Washington University and certificates in International Human Rights Law and Nonprofit Management from Oxford University and  Georgetown University, respectively. Lara also holds a B.A. in Sociology and Spanish from Vanderbilt University, where she graduated with honors.