Sandra Djuvara Melone (Chairwoman)

France

Sandra Djuvara Melone is the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors for Search for Common Ground ASBL/VZW and has worked with Search for Common Ground since 1995. Sandra served as Search for Common Ground’s Executive Vice President for 12 years, prior to which, she founded Search for Common Ground Belgium ASBL/VZW, where she served as Executive Director for 8 years, and founded the Women's Peace Centre in Burundi, where she was based for 2 years during the civil war. Sandra is a founding member of the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation (EPCPT), of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), and of the Child Soldiers Initiative (CSI), and served on their Steering Committees. She also served on the Board of the International Federation of Associations in Belgium (FAIB) and as the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP). Before dedicating her career to conflict transformation, Sandra worked in human rights advocacy with Amnesty International, and in international education. She has given numerous presentations and led workshops and trainings in conflict resolution, mediation, negotiation, consensus-building, team-building, facilitation, cross-cultural communication, fundraising, and NGO management. She has appeared on CNN, BBC, the VOA and other media, and her articles have been published in a variety of international outlets. She has written about the role NGOs can play in Track II diplomacy and reconciliation; the complementarities of governmental, non-governmental, intergovernmental and private sector initiatives; and civil-military cooperation. Sandra studied at the University of Chicago and Ludwig-Maximilian Universitat in Munich. She speaks English, French, German and Romanian, and has worked across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. She is the Founder and President of the Neagu Djuvara Cultural Association.