Abigail (Kweskin) Averbach Email & Phone Number

I am a seasoned attorney with twenty years of specialization in victim/survivor-centered and trauma-informed approaches to criminal and administrative investigations. I have built and currently manage the Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment (PSEAH) Coordination Unit at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. I lead a dedicated team of nine professionals focused on prevention and response to sexual misconduct and the related abuse of power. I began my Global Fund career in 2019 in the Office of the Inspector General where I led the organization’s first-ever investigation into sexual exploitation and abuse in connection with grant activities.Prior to joining the public health and international development community, I was a criminal prosecutor in the U.S., serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice (District of Vermont) and as an Assistant District Attorney for the New York County District Attorney’s Office. As a prosecutor, I have specialized in human trafficking, sex crimes, and other violent crime prosecutions and co-chaired a multidisciplinary taskforce aimed at combatting sex and labor trafficking against the backdrop of a serious opiate epidemic. Between prosecutor roles, I spent several years in private practice handling corporate investigations in Manhattan. Fluent in French and have lived and practiced in New York City; Burlington, Vermont; and Geneva, Switzerland.