Biography
Since 2005 Dr. Johanna Mendelson-Forman has been a non-resident Senior Associate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She currently serves as a senior advisor the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Until June 2006 she was the Director of Peace, Security, and Human Rights at the UN Foundation. Prior to joining the UN Foundation, Johanna was co-director of a high-level bi-partisan commission on Post-Conflict Reconstruction of the Association of the United States Army and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She also served as senior fellow at the Association of the United States Army’s program on the Role of American Military Power in the 21st Century (RAMP). For the last eight years she has held senior positions at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), most recently as s Senior Policy Advisor for the Bureau for Humanitarian Response, where she managed the Agency’s policy on post-conflict reconstruction, security sector reform, and governance. From 1998-1999 she served as Senior Social Scientist and Attorney at the World Bank’s newly created Post Conflict Unit, on assignment from USAID. In 1994 she was appointed as a Senior Advisor to the newly created Office of Transition Initiatives. She also was one of the founders of the Conflict Prevention Network in 1997, a coalition of donor nations and the UN, working together to coordinate and support the reconstruction of war-torn societies.
She also holds a faculty appointment at The American University's School of International Service in Washington, D.C. and at Georgetown University’s Center for National Security Studies. For over a decade, Dr. Mendelson has worked to develop a network of organizations in Latin America concerned with improving civil-military relations and good governance. Dr. Mendelson is also a regular lecturer at the US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, the National Defense University, and the Inter-American Defense College. Dr. Mendelson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Advisory Board of Women in International Security. She co-chairs the Security Advisory Committee of The White House Project. She holds a J.D. from Washington College of Law at The American University, a Ph.D. in Latin American history from Washington University, St. Louis, and a Masters of International Affairs, with a Certificate of Latin America Studies from Columbia University in New York. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. |
