Tanya Accone leads UNICEF’s innovation discovery and exploration function. Previously, she designed and led the organization’s efforts to scale proven innovations across multiple countries. Her work supports over 190 countries in identifying and successfully scaling promising solutions, while fostering a culture of change management and building others' capabilities. Accone's scaling strategies include youth-driven social innovation and entrepreneurship, empowerment platforms, digital health technology solutions, real-time data, policy development, risk management in social media, and geospatial data and biometrics.

Accone's career has focused on helping public and private sector organizations achieve their preferred futures by understanding how to amplify their impact through the convergence of innovation, people, systems and technology. During her career, she has nurtured various innovative and technological development initiatives. She has established and led UNICEF’s global human capital futures and analytics portfolio, spearheaded the development of Internet businesses and content portals throughout the African continent, served as the Internet Editor of southern Africa's largest newspaper, and worked for the Washington Post. Accone has a Journalism degree from Rhodes University and completed her MA in Public Communication at American University on a Fulbright Scholarship. She also holds an MS in Studies of the Future in strategic foresight and planning from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.