Rebecca Wolfe

Dr. Rebecca J. Wolfe is a Research Affiliate at ISDC. She is a lecturer at the Harris School for Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where she is an associate at the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. She is a leading expert on political violence, conflict and violent extremism. Over her career, she has developed conflict prevention and violence reduction programs globally, including Kenya’s largest youth development program, gang violence prevention in Guatemala City, countering violent extremism programs in Nigeria and Yemen, and community-based conflict management interventions in Iraq, Syria, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan. She has also published research on how development interventions can be designed to reduce support for violence and the effectiveness of peacebuilding interventions. Her current work with ISDC involves a quasi-experimental impact evaluation on how vocational training programs can reduce bias among hosts and refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. Prior to joining the faculty at Chicago, she led research and program development related to conflict and fragility at Mercy Corps, an international development and humanitarian agency. Previously, she was a Fellow at Yale University’s Political Violence Field Lab. Dr. Wolfe has taught at Princeton University’s School for Public and International Affairs and at the Wagner School for Public Service at New York University. Currently, she is an affiliate at NYU’s Center for Practice and Research at the Intersection of Information, Society, and Methodology (PRIISM) and a board member of the Evidence of Governance Politics (EGAP) network. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Harvard University.