USD Welcomes Women Peacemakers to Campus

USD Welcomes Women Peacemakers to Campus

The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, at the University of San Diego’s Kroc School of Peace Studies, is pleased to announce this year’s Women PeaceMakers. Celebrating its 14th year, the Women PeaceMakers program is a signature and unique program created at USD. The Women PeaceMakers program offers an opportunity for internationally acclaimed women leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories.

In addition to documenting their stories, women give presentations on their work at the institute and in the San Diego community. They have opportunities to exchange ideas and approaches to peacemaking and justice, which increases their capacity to participate in conflict resolution, peacebuilding efforts and post-conflict decision making.

The 2016 Women PeaceMakers will be in residence at USD from September 10 to November 19, sharing their stories of peacebuilding and defending human rights. A video introducing the WPM and the panel discussions can be found here

Below are brief bios of this year’s leaders and links to their full biographies.

Hamsatu Allamin of Nigeria is the regional manager of the North East section of the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme, and is a trusted negotiator and peacemaker between militants, state actors and non-state actors in her country’s conflict-ridden North East region. Her Network of Civil Society Organizations for Peace was one of the key groups credited for launching the Bring Back Our Girls campaign after the kidnapping of 276 Nigerian school girls in 2014.

Jane Anyango of Kenya is a grassroots peacebuilder, who mobilized hundreds of women to reduce Kenya's post-election violence in 2007/8 and prevent further bloodshed in the 2013 elections. She is also founding director of the Polycom Development Project, based in Nairobi’s informal settlement of Kibera, which works to advance the rights and dignity of adolescent girls.

Khurshid Bano of Pakistan is the founder of the women-led organization Da Hawwa Lur (Daughter of Eve) in the conflict-affected region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She challenges religious intolerance and violent extremist groups by promoting interfaith peacebuilding and women's rights. The founder of the first women's union in KP, Bano champions women's rights to live and work free from sexual and gender-based harassment, violence and discrimination.

Fatma Mehdi Hassam of Western Sahara — who has been a refugee in Algeria for nearly 40 years — is the president of the National Union of Saharawi Women and chair of the Women and Gender Cluster of the African Union’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council. Within the refugee community and beyond she has advanced women's political leadership and peace activism for over three decades.

Meet the Women PeaceMakers at these free public events throughout the fall. All events will be held in the Peace & Justice Theatre on the University of San Diego campus.

The Women PeaceMakers are available to speak with the media by calling 619/ 260-4659 x4.


About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.