About

For over twenty years, Dr. Kristen Ali Eglinton has devoted her life to elevating the voices of vulnerable and displaced communities around the globe, including women and LGBTQIA+ survivors of violence. A feminist researcher and ethnographer, she holds a PhD in social and educational research from the University of Cambridge and is the co-founder and executive director of Footage Foundation, an international feminist NGO working through its branches including Footage France and the upcoming FootageLab, to advance gender justice, wellbeing, and voice. Her work integrates research, narrative, and digital innovation in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, and feminist foreign policy principles.

Kristen is an applied social scientist and expert in qualitative, ethnographic, and arts-based methodologies. Her practice is rooted in the science of narrative, empathy, and compassion, and reflects her vision of compassion and connection as vital tools for both personal and systemic transformation. She has authored two books (Routledge, Springer), published in leading peer-reviewed journals including Youth & Society and Young, and is widely recognized for her participatory research and intervention design in crisis and post-crisis settings.

She has led more than 20 international research and intervention programs across 20+ countries, focused on gender-based violence, forced displacement, mental health, and pro-democracy work. As an applied social scientist and design ethnographer, Kristen has contributed to global initiatives addressing social and emotional wellbeing, refugee voice, Aboriginal health and suicide prevention, addiction and compassion, childhood obesity, and financial inclusion. Through Footage Foundation, she has developed bespoke feminist toolkits, participatory research methods, and digital storytelling platforms that foster resilience, dignity, and dialogue in marginalized, often exiled, communities. She has also worked on multinational technology-for-development projects, including one that established information-sharing systems across Indigenous villages in South Africa. Her clients and collaborators span international foundations, universities, UN missions, nonprofits, Fortune 500 companies, and start-up social enterprises. Her fieldwork spans conflict and crisis-affected settings, including Ukraine, Central Asia, Russia, the South Bronx, USA, and multiple refugee and migration zones, including across Greece (e.g., Lesvos and formerly Skaramagas camp), as well as other urban and rural contexts worldwide.

Under her leadership, Footage Foundation has implemented feminist research interventions in 13+ countries, built the world’s largest digital storytelling platform for women and gender-expansive survivors of violence, and received twelve U.S. Department of State Public Diplomacy awards. Flagship interventions she leads at Footage include FemSMS (a compassionate messaging platform for women in conflict zones), PowerTools (capacity-building through participatory storytelling), and Her{connect}Her (a narrative-driven program for forcibly displaced communities across six countries). Her work centers dialogue diplomacy, connecting research and lived experience to influence humanitarian response and inform policy at the local and global levels.

Kristen’s work through Footage has been featured in major international fora and media including the BBC, Libération, the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, to name a few.

Banner photo credit: Valerie Terranova