Welcome to the first episode of Witness, today, we have Laurel Quinn.
Laurel is the director of operations and policyoutreach for the Peace Accords Matrix, a research program at the University of Notre Dame. She is a part of various peace building initiatives under Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute of Peace Studies. Most notably, we discuss Laurel’s experience in the Colombia Barometer Initiative, managing the Havana negotiations between the Colombian government and it’speople’s army as well as further work in Mindanao and peace-building policy implementation in DC – in process of earning bipartisan approval.
Laurel’s work centers bridging theory and practice, academia and policy – a central theme that informs the kind of journalism The Sunday Diplomat seeks to produce. Today, journalism often inspires or informs, but there always exists a gap between what we read and what we do, the actions we take, the policies we implement to change the circumstance we bring nuance to. This is where the importance of Laurel’s work lay. We walk through how bridge builders like herself flexibly switch perspectives, frame stories, and communicate with presidents, diplomats, and locals alike. In an era of polarization and global conflicts, building these bridges have never been more consequential.
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