Expert Network Expert of the Month – December 2016 Contributor

Jessica Berns’s work over the last 20 years has been situated within non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and university-based programs. These include global peace and security initiatives, citizen movements for good governance, and women’s leadership. She has built her expertise at the intersection of academia and practice of international affairs, peace and security, and civil society engagement. Since founding Jessica Berns Consulting in 2011, Jessica has leveraged her knowledge, approach, and networks on behalf of her clients to advance social change. She creates strategies, designs programs, develops partnerships, and builds communication platforms motivated by a vision of a safer, more just, and more equal world.

Jessica has a special interest in civil society network and partnership development, which she first developed as a Program Officer working with the Latin American chapters of Transparency International, the anti-corruption NGO in Berlin, Germany. More recently, as Program Director of Coexistence International at Brandeis University (USA), an initiative focused on strengthening the coexistence field, Jessica facilitated the creation of a network of coexistence practitioners in West Africa. She currently serves as a consultant to clients such as American Friends Service Committee, Camp 72, Global Peacebuilding Foundation, and Purdue Peace Project.

With an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Spanish, and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, Jessica has spent much of her professional life working and living abroad, in Latin America, Europe, and West Africa.

Learn more about Jessica’s work on her website:
http://www.jessicabernsconsulting.com/

Follow Jessica on Twitter at: @jessicabberns

Articles Authored

The Case for Locally Led Peacebuilding (1 December 2016) - To improve the capacity of European governments, foundations, and civil society organizations (CSOs) to prevent, maintain, and build peace, support for locally led peacebuilding is vital.