lena slachmuijlder

Executive Director, Digital Peacebuilding

Lena Slachmuijlder is the Executive Director of Digital Peacebuilding at Search for Common Ground, activating and elevating the use of digital tools for conflict transformation across Search’s programs. She is also the Co-Chair of the Council on Tech and Social Cohesion, which fosters collaboration between technologists, academics, policy advocates and peacebuilders to catalyze the design and deployment of technology for social cohesion. She has 30 years of experience working for peaceful social change, starting as a journalist with anti-apartheid media in South Africa, and pioneering creative media tools for peacebuilding over the last two decades. She has trained journalists, artists and peacebuilders across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, has published numerous articles and book chapters, and produced an award-winning film about Burundi’s “Heroes”. She led the codification of the Common Ground Approach core curriculum, authored Transforming Violent Extremism: a Peacebuilder's guide and championed Search’s first 10-year organizational strategy. Lena is a graduate of Stanford University, an alumni of Amsterdam's THNK School for Creative Leadership and Brandeis University’s fellowship on Arts and Reconciliation. In 2020, Lena gave a TEDx talk entitled ‘The Vaccine to End War’. She lives in Brussels with her husband and two step-children.