Nicolette Naylor serves as international program director for Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice. She plays a key role in expanding the role of philanthropy, including local philanthropy, in global processes and facilitates partnership building between civil society, governments, private sector and philanthropic partners across global forums. Previously, she was the Regional Director of the foundation's Southern Africa office in Johannesburg, where her grant making focused on human rights and governance, with a specific focus on women's rights and realizing the progressive socioeconomic rights enshrined in the region’s constitutions.

Before joining the foundation in 2007, Nicolette worked as a lawyer in the equality program at the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights (Interights) in London, focusing on international human rights and litigation, specifically women's rights, before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the European Court of Human Rights. Previously, she served as a public interest lawyer at the Women’s Legal Centre, based in Cape Town, where she worked to protect and promote women’s rights.

Nicolette has been appointed to a number of advisory bodies, in both South Africa and other parts of the continent, such as the Committee on Gender Equity, established by the South African minister of education, and a Nigerian committee of experts, set up to review draft legislation on violence against women in Nigeria. She has also served as a member of ACHPR’s expert committee for the protection of the rights of people living with, at risk for, or otherwise affected by HIV in Africa.