Rachel Locke is a Non-Resident Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation(CIC). Rachel joined the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (Kroc IPJ) as Director of Impact:Peace in July 2019. Prior to joining IPJ, Rachel was Head of Research for violence prevention with the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies at NYU CIC. In this capacity, Rachel led coalition building and evidence curation with the UN, bilateral governments, the African Union, civil society and others to explore the challenge of delivering the 2030 Agenda targets for peaceful societies (SDG 16.1).
Rachel has extensive experience delivering evidence-based violence prevention solutions to some of the most difficult international contexts while simultaneously advancing essential policy for peace. As Senior Policy Advisor with the US Agency for International Development she was responsible for developing and representing agency-wide policy on issues concerning conflict, violence and fragility, including spearheading agency input into violence prevention and the SDGs. She also led USAID research and policy on crime, conflict, and fragility. As the Director for International Interventions at John Jay College’s National Network for Safe Communities, Rachel launched a new program of work bridging effective violence reduction approaches across municipalities globally. Importantly, this work involved working directly with law enforcement, national and city-level government and civil society actors and entities. Among other initiatives, Rachel launched a three-year effort across two states and five municipalities in Mexico at a time of exceptionally high violence.
Rachel’s experience bridges the humanitarian, development, peacebuilding and urban violence realms. She holds a Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University, Graduate School of International and Public Affairs with a concentration in economic development and humanitarian interventions and a regional focus on Africa. She has also published a variety of articles and other works focusing on humanitarian aid, conflict and transnational organized crime.
