Anne-Marie Helland has been with Norwegian Church Aid since 2001—first as special advisor on health, HIV & AIDS, then as regional representative for NCA in Southern Africa, then as acting Director of Department for Development Policy before she took up the position as General Secretary of NCA in spring 2012.

Before she joined NCA she worked as coordinator for Norwegian Refugee Council and as a consultant with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She has a Masters degree in Development Studies from University of Bristol, UK and a Bachelors degree in Development Studies from Høgskolen in Oslo.

She has been a member of the Board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and malaria, and she co-chaired Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) Strategy Group on HIV & AIDS. She has had a number of church based assignments, e.g member of World Council of Churches (WCC) reference Group for the Ecumenical HIV & Aids Initiative in Africa (EHAIA), and advisor and stand-in for Bishop emeritus Gunnar Stålsett in his role as chair of Leadership Program at the International AIDS conference in Toronto, and linked to this event she arranged a high level minister meeting on the issue of women and HIV.

She has also been an active member of YMCA-YWCA since her youth.

When she was 12-13 years old she was asked by her Bishop what she would become when she grew older. She answered: “First I will travel around and learn about the world and when I become 40, I will be the General Secretary of Norwegian Church Aid”. She missed by 1 year.