ABOUT ME 

Noah Ponton is a program manager at Humanity United, where he provides grantmaking strategy and program oversight to the foundation’s Forced Labor and Human Trafficking portfolio. He works directly with human rights NGOs, grassroots activists, and journalists working across South Asia and the Gulf on issues related to worker agency, corporate accountability, and migration. Most recently, his work has included raising awareness around the abuses of low-wage migrant workers in Qatar ahead of the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup. 

He serves as an advisory board member for Human Rights First, a nonprofit organization working to promote human rights and the rule of law within the United States and abroad. In 2023, he was selected as part of Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen Cohort, a fellowship dedicated to supporting early-career foreign policy thinkers, advocates, and activists. In 2022, Noah was recognized as a 2022 Out Leader by the New America Foundation and Out in National Security.

His writings on issues of democracy and human rights have been published in The Hill and Instick Media.

In addition to working in philanthropy, Noah recently served as fellow for National Security Action. He has served in the offices of Senator Thomas Carper (DE) and Representative G. K. Butterfield (NC), where he conducted legislative research on issues related to U.S. foreign policy and humanitarian aid reform. As an aide to Liberal International’s Chief Human Rights Officer, he conducted policy research on the United Nations Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Doctrine and the politics of Western-backed humanitarian intervention in Libya and Rwanda. Noah has also worked at the National Women’s Law Center, providing support to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund.

Noah holds a master's in comparative politics from the London School of Economics and an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Peace, War, and Defense from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an Honors Carolina Laureate.