Kathleen Kuehnast

Kathleen Kuehnast

Kathleen Kuehnast is director of the Gender and Peacebuilding Center at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Prior to her present position, Kuehnast had a 15-year career in international development, where she worked extensively with the World Bank managing research and programmatic projects and advising policymakers (government and non-government) on social development concerns, with a focus on gender-related concerns. She has worked in a similar capacity with the Asian Development Bank, the German Technical Cooperation Agency and the U.N. Development Program. From poverty studies such as, Better a Hundred Friends than a Hundred Rubles: Social Networks in Transition in Kyrgyzstan, to conflict-related development projects, Whose Rules Rule? Everyday Border and Water Conflicts in Central Asia, Kuehnast has focused on the role of qualitative social analysis as a critical perspective, especially in understanding the role of women in economic transition and post-conflict reconstruction. Dr. Kuehnast is co-editor of the volume, Women and War: Power and Protection in the 21st Century (USIP Press).