TRANSFORMATIVE PEACE
Meet the Team
Meet Dr. Houda Abadi
OUR FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dr. Abadi has more than 18 years of extensive experience designing and implementing peacebuilding programs in the U.S., Europe and the MENA region. Dr. Abadi works with a wide range of stakeholders to facilitate dialogue and promote peacebuilding in sensitive conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Syria, and Sudan. She develops programs to foster women’s inclusion in peacebuilding processes; provides expertise in designing community based and gender sensitive PVE programs that are locally owned and led; facilitates collaboration between policymakers and grassroots leaders across political and religious divides; conducts evidence based research to help shape policy decisions at the national and international levels, and lastly empowers community leaders to be positive agents of change.
Additionally, Dr. Abadi also has also designed and implemented
monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, managed multi-million-dollar
budgets, overseen robust teams of national and international staff, and has provided high-level policy analysis and recommendations.
Prior to establishing Transformative Peace, Dr. Abadi served as the associate director of the Conflict Resolution Program at the Carter Center from 2014-2019. While working on the Syrian and the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, she designed and directed a locally tailored grassroots project that works with community and faith-based leaders from North Africa, Europe, and the United States to develop practical applications to prevent and address all forms of violent extremism.
Dr. Abadi also served as program director in two conflict transformation organizations that worked with Jewish and Muslim youth through experiential and political education. She also worked on curriculum development, civic engagement, youth empowerment, and conflict transformation - as well as serving as an international gender research consultant.
She has received numerous awards and honors, including the Luther College Young Alumni Award, Georgia State University Transcultural Conflict and Violence Presidential Fellowship, the Atlanta Institute for Diplomatic leadership 2018 Peacebuilder Award, and the 2019 ISB Women of Influence Award. She currently serves as a council member in the RESOLVE’s Research Advisory Board.
Dr. Abadi holds a Ph.D. in Political Communication and Media Studies from Georgia State University, a graduate certificate from Duke-UNC in Middle East Studies, and an MA in International Relations and Diplomacy, with a concentration in Middle East Studies and Conflict Resolution from Seton Hall University.
Dr. Abadi has published numerous scholarly articles, and has taught at Georgia State University and University of North Carolina. She speaks English, French, Arabic, and Spanish, and divides her time between Morocco and the United States.
Meet Austin Langdon
OUR RESEARCHER
Austin holds a MA in Conflict Analysis and Resolution with a concentration in Extremism and Conflict Transformation from George Mason University. He focused on the intersection of reconciliation and violent extremism, focusing on the relationship between cognitive-affective systems, radicalization, and reconciliation. Prior to his MA, he completed his undergraduate studies at Miami University with a double major in Political Science and Journalism. Austin worked as a visiting journalist in Kosovo where he studied post-conflict democratization as a component of his study abroad program. Starting in January 2022, Austin began working as a research intern for Transformative Peace (TP) and officially became a research contractor for TP in June 2022.
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