Hongxia Liu Bio

Ms. Liu is the founding Director of the ABA/UNDP International Legal Resource Center (ILRC). During the five-year period between 2000 and 2005, Ms. Liu directed and implemented the collaboration between American Bar Association (ABA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in more than 200 projects in over 70 developing countries around the world. At the requests of UNDP and national governments, the ILRC provides legal information, legislative assessments, policy reviews, as well as recommendations of legal experts who can undertake in-country missions to assist in a wide range of areas including legislative drafting, judicial capacity building, public administration, and the development of independent bar associations.

Ms. Liu earned her Bachelor degree in Law from Peking University Department of International Affairs in China in 1985 and Master degree in Public Policy from New York University in 1988. After seven years raising her two children to school age, she commenced her professional career in 1995 in Tbilisi, the Republic of Georgia, a former Soviet Union republic, serving initially as a Program Officer and later briefly as the Country Representative for the Academy of Educational Development, assisting United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implementing executive training programs for governmental ministers. She started serving the ABA in 1997 soon after her family?s return from overseas, dedicating her first two years to the ABA/Central and Eastern Europe Law Initiative (CEELI) as its Sub-grants Manager supervising small grants program to the newly established independent bar associations across the CEE and CIS regions.

In 2002 Ms. Liu was recognized as a Salzburg Fellow by the Salzburg Institute in Austria for her contribution to the program ?Law as a Catalyst for Change in Asia?. In 2003 Ms. Liu was selected as a Finalist for the United States Supreme Court Fellowship by the United States Supreme Court Fellows Commission. In 2005, Ms. Liu was recognized as a co-recipient of the ABA ?World Order Under Law? Award. Ms. Liu is the President of the Washington Foreign Law Society for 2005-2006.

In addition to providing public service in law and international development, Ms. Liu also has been active in charity and community service in arts and culture. She has served as the Hostess/Master of Ceremony of the Chinese Cultural Festival, an annual event sponsored jointly by the City Council of the District of Columbia and the Chinese Embassy. She is the President of the Peking University Alumni Association for the Washington Metropolitan Area for 2004-2006.