Our Team

Shirley Graham

Director

Dr. Shirley Graham is the Director of the Athena Initiative and Associate Professor of Practice of International Affairs at GW, Elliott School of International Affairs. She teaches two graduate courses: Women, War and Peace and Women in Global Policymaking; and an undergraduate course: Women in Global Politics.

Shirley is the founder and faculty advisor to the Student Consortium on Women, Peace and Security, a DMV-wide university organisation focused on student engagement, awareness-raising, and information sharing. For more information about how to get involved and their forthcoming events click here. Link to webpage.

Shirley is a Research Fellow affiliated with the Institute for Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution  at Dublin City University, where she received her Masters Degree in International Affairs Her Ph.D from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, for which she received a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, examined gender discourses within the Irish Defence Forces that create and reinforce power hierarchies, supporting or inhibiting women’s access to peacekeeping missions.

Shirley’s current research interests focus on trauma as a driver of violence and cycles of conflict. Her forthcoming chapter: Men and Masculinities in WPS: Trauma as a Driver of Violence, will be published by Routledge Press in 2026 in a book she is co-editing titled: Fragmented Peace: Women, Peace and Security in a Polarized Canada-United States Context. She has conducted research with Security Cooperation Gender Advisors (GENADs) working for the U.S. military, which was recently published in the book: The American Way of Women, Peace and Security, published by Lynne Rienner.

Shirley’s practitioner work has focused on  women and peacebuilding and ending violence against women and girls. She has facilitated deep dialogue with women from politically divided communities in Northern Ireland and conducted research for the Women’s Leadership Program at the Glencree Centre for Peace & Reconciliation in Ireland. She coordinated the Hanna’s House All Ireland Peace Project leading consultations with grassroots women’s organizations and advocating for their inclusion in Ireland’s first National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security. The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) requested that Shirley lead a collaborative process with NGOs gathering testimonies from asylum-seeking and refugee women about their experiences of war and conflict and the direct provision system in Ireland. The subsequent report was key to their inclusion in Ireland’s first NAP on WPS.

Eden Hailu

Program Coordinator

Eden Hailu is a recent graduate of the MA Security Policy Studies program at George Washington University, with a concentration in Conflict Resolution. She is a Program Coordinator on the Elliott School’s Special Initiatives team, overseeing initiatives on Humanitarian Action, Human Security, and Latin American and Caribbean studies. She holds a BA in Political Science and Economics from the University of Pittsburgh. Upon graduation, she aims to strengthen humanitarian aid and atrocity prevention efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Inaara Ali

Communications Assistant

Inaara Ali is a graduate student in the MA International Affairs program at George Washington University,  concentrating in Global Gender Policy.