Judith Welling is a lawyer who has specialized in human rights, democracy, governance and rule of law development. She holds a juris doctor degree from Indiana University's Michael Maurer School of Law and a masters degree in Public Policy from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Before her year at Princeton, Judith worked within the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC. There she served as a founding program officer on an initiative to support human rights defenders at heightened risk of political persecution. Before this, Judith was a visiting fellow at the Lauterpacht Research Center for International Law at Cambridge University, where she conducted research on the benefits of developing international indicators for economic, social and cultural rights. She has held other positions concerned with human rights and rule of law development.