The Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations is a multilateral project developing approaches to help overcome barriers and increase the meaningful participation of uniformed women from police and military institutions in UN peace operations.
As a Research Fellow at Cornell University, I work with Dr. Sabrina Karim on the ELSIE initiative projects. My primary responsibilities include leading surveys of police and gendarmerie personnel in Jordan, military personnel in Bangladesh, and military personnel in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. I also assist with ELSIE projects in Uganda, Uruguay, Nigeria, Fiji, and other countries.
Our work is conducted in partnership with the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) through the Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations (MOWIP) Methodology — a framework that identifies institutional and context-specific barriers to personnel’s full integration and access to UN deployment opportunities. I also contribute to the MOWIP Toolbox, Policy Briefs, and the Global MOWIP Report.
I am also the lead author of one of the ongoing projects of the Gender and the Security Sector Lab and coauthor on other projects examining how socialization shapes security forces’ attitudes toward the use of violence, and how institutional differences between police and military organizations explain such attitudes.
MOWIP reports
Fieldwork
Focus groups and validation workshops with Republic of Fiji Military Forces and Police Forces, Suva, Fiji, March–April 2026
Validation workshops with Republic of Fiji Police Forces, Suva, Fiji, March–April 2026
Opening ceremony of ELSIE project in the Cambodian Royal Armed Forces, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, December 2022
Jordanian Public Security Directorate ELSIE project validation workshop, Amman, Jordan, August 2022
Global MOWIP Report launch, Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN, New York, June 2022
DCAF-MOWIP Country Participants Workshop, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2023