Guide to Specialists

Mary Hope Schwoebel
Program Officer, Education and Training Center/International

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Phone: (202) 429-3837

E-mail: mschwoebel@usip.org

Languages: Spanish, Somali, Portuguese

Mary Hope Schwoebel is a program officer in the Education and Training Center/International. She holds a Ph.D. in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University and an M.Ed. in adult and non-formal education from the University of California, Davis. Her dissertation was entitled Nation-building in the Lands of the Somalis and compared three state-building and peacebuilding interventions in terms of how they negotiated Somali, Islamic, and Western models of governance and conflict resolution. For the past ten years Mary Hope has worked as a consultant for international organizations. Most recently, she worked for the UN Development Program where she contributed to the development of a global policy on community security and social cohesion and for USAID and its partners. She also conducted peace and conflict assessments and evaluations around the world, including South Asia, South America, East and West Africa, Turkey, Guyana, and Indonesia.

Prior to that she lived and worked in Africa for six years and South America for five years. She has taught peace and conflict studies, international relations, and foreign policy as adjunct faculty at American, Georgetown, and George Mason universities. She has over 25 years of experience as a trainer for multilateral and non-governmental organizations in conflict management, disaster management, humanitarian assistance, democracy and governance, peacebuilding and development.

Publications:

• "Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, Peacebuilding," co-authored with Erin McCandless. World at Risk: A Global Issues Source Book (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2008)
• "Towards a Theory, Method, and Practice of Appreciative Inquiry: For Use in Complex Peacebuilding and Development Contexts," co-authored with Erin McCandless. Positive Approaches to Peacebuilding: A Resource for Innovators. Edited by Mohammed Abu Nimer, et al., (PACT Publications, 2002)
• "Creative Marginality: Exploring the Links Between Conflict Resolution and Social Work," co-authored with Jay Rothman and Randi Jean Land. Peace and Conflict Studies (Volume 8, Number 1. May 2001)
• "Stay in Your Own Lane: The Military and NGOs in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies," Security Dialogue (Vol. 29, No. 2, June 1998)