Whitney Hedlund is a peacebuilding professional and researcher with roughly a decade of experience in international development. She recently graduated with a master’s degree in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame where she studied decoloniality, settler colonialism, and grassroots movements focused on combating spatial apartheid. She has worked with a variety of NGOs in the United States, Palestine, South Africa, and Senegal. The bulk of her career was spent at USAID as an analyst in the Research and Policy Division, working at the intersections of implementation science, human dignity, biodiversity, and health system abuses.

Currently, Whitney also works at the American Friends Service Committee as the International Programs Peace Lovelace Fellow. She is a co-founding organizer of Red Candle: Light for Palestine. Whitney is involved in domestic peacebuilding efforts focused on collective liberation with special attention to BIPOC communities, specifically in Baltimore, Maryland where she is based. In addition to her master’s degree, Whitney holds B.A.s in International Relations and French, as well as a certificate in Human Needs and Global Resources from Wheaton College.