Virginia Tice recently completed a 2 year assignment as coordinator of Heartland Alliance’s child protection services in Sulaimania, Kurdistan, in northeast Iraq. Tice’s directive involved the establishment of programs addressing human rights violations of institutionalized people.

Those programs included training workers in the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social and Labor Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Human Rights helping the directors of all the psych units and hospitals in Iraq to produce policies and procedures for their institutions in accordance with international practices.

Through her second year with Heartland Alliance, Tice began volunteering for the only environmental organization in Iraq, Nature Iraq, initially as a trainer and legal consultant to the organization and the Iraqi Ministry of Environment which instantly hired her to take a greater role in their projects.

Following 2 years of human rights work with Heartland, Tice continues to foster Iraqi environmental efforts and is presently based in New York City, now as general counsel of Nature Iraq.