I am a Professor of the Practice of Peacebuilding and Technology and Richard G. Starmann Chair in Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. I also serve as Senior Fellow at the Toda Peace Institute.
I have worked in the field of peacebuilding for 30 years in over 20 countries to design public processes for depolarization, social cohesion, and peacebuilding. My current research focuses on using technology to support public discourse and public problem solving through a “full stack” of democracy technologies for civic organizing, deliberation, participation, and decisionmaking.
I am the author of ten books in the field of peacebuilding, including “Social Media Impacts on Conflict and Democracy: The Techtonic Shift” and I am currently writing a book on “Digital Peacebuilding and Peacetech.”
As a practitioner of mediation, facilitation, and dialogue, I also provide training to civil society, security forces, government agencies, the World Bank, and the UN on the design of peace processes, systems approaches to violent extremism, conflict assessment, peacebuilding and human security. I sit on a variety of research and practitioner review panels, including the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) and the Dutch government’s Security and Rule of Law Fund.
My primary experience is working with small, community-led civil society organizations who pioneered the field of peacebuilding over the last 30 years.
With an MS and a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University, I have experience in the fields of media, technology, humanitarian assistance, development, governance, conflict prevention and peacebuilding. A former Fulbright Fellow in East and West Africa, I have also worked in Afghanistan, Fiji, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Brazil, Costa Rica and elsewhere.
