Erin McCandless is an academic and policy advisor with three decades experience working on and in conflict- and crisis-affected settings in over 20 countries globally. Her focus lies on understanding these contexts and how processes of peacemaking, peacebuilding and transformative social change unfold and nurtured in synergistic ways towards the fostering of more just, sustainable and peaceful futures. Dr. McCandless is affiliated with the Politics Department at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa (where she resides), the Institute for Development and Sustainability in Germany and the Global Institute for Strategic Research in Qatar. For the spring semester of 2024 she will join the Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s College of Public Policy as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Value. Dr. McCandless has worked extensively with the United Nations in Liberia and across UN agencies combining research, policy advising and strategic facilitation. From 2015-2018 she directed a multi-country research and policy dialogue project on Forging Resilient Social Contracts, and from 2011-2018 she served as a senior civil society representative in the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding ‘New Deal’ process. Dr. McCandless is a sought after speaker and author of more than 100 publications, including three books (one edited), several impactful United Nations studies.