Teresa Whitfield

Teresa Whitfield is an independent consultant, Senior Adviser to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (Geneva), and Associate of Conciliation Resources (London). From 2016 – 2022 she was Director of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs’ (DPPA) Policy and Mediation Division at the United Nations. After an early career as a journalist, she spent five years in the UN’s Department of Political Affairs (DPA) in the 1990s, working on Central American peace processes and other issues. Subsequently, she was a fellow of New York University’s Center on International Cooperation; Senior Adviser and UN liaison for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue; and Senior Adviser to the President of the International Crisis Group. Among her operational engagements, she provided support to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway during the peace process between the government of Colombia and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC.

Teresa has published widely on peace and conflict issues including Paying the Price: Ignacio Ellacuría and the Murdered Jesuits of El Salvador, Temple University Press, 1994; Friends Indeed? The United Nations, Groups of Friends and the Resolution of Conflict, United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007; and Endgame for ETA: Elusive Peace in the Basque Country, Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2014.  She was the Issue Editor of Still time to talk: Adaptation and innovation in peace mediation, Conciliation Resources, 2024.

Education

• MA in Latin American Studies, King's College, University of London
• BA in English Literature, University of Cambridge