Laura joined Conciliation Resources in October 2019, and is Director of the Europe-Asia Department, overseeing work in the South Caucasus and South Asia regions, as well as our cross-regional peacebuilding work. Laura brings expertise on adaptive peacebuilding management and led our work with the Smart Peace consortium, an innovative consortium integrating research and implementation to address complex conflict problems. She also worked closely with the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth Team, providing secretariat support to the network. 

Before Laura joined Conciliation Resources, she set up and managed violence reduction programmes with a focus on learning and innovation, for an international development consultancy, where she managed teams in Nigeria, South Sudan and Malawi. She previously worked in DFID, to support adaptive programming and learning.

Before this, she worked in and with grassroots UK-based charities to advocate for an inclusive approach to tackling gender-based violence, and to increase support for women's organisations. She holds an MSc from LSE in politics and democracy, for which she conducted research with women's organisations and wider civil society organisations in Thailand and Egypt on the changing nature of civil society-state relations.