Susan Hayward

Susan Hayward is Senior Program Officer in the Religion and Peacemaking Center of Innovation, where she develops conflict prevention, resolution and reconciliation projects specifically targeting the religious sector. Since joining the Institute in 2007, her work has focused on Colombia, Iraq and Sri Lanka. She also coordinates an initiative exploring the intersection of women, religion, conflict, and peacebuilding in partnership with the Berkley Center at Georgetown University and the World Faiths Development Dialogue.

Prior to joining the Institute, Hayward worked as a short-term religious peacebuilding consultant for the Academy of Educational Development in Colombo, Sri Lanka, as a fellow of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, and with the Conflict Resolution Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Hayward has also conducted political asylum, refugee policy and human rights work in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.

Hayward studied Buddhism in Nepal and is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

Hayward holds a B.A. in comparative religions from Tufts University, a master’s degree in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts and a master of divinity from Harvard Divinity School.

Publications:

• “The Spoiler and the Reconciler: Buddhism and the Peace Process in Sri Lanka” in Between Terror  and Tolerance: Religious Leaders, Conflict , and Peacemaking. Edited by Tim Sisk.  Georgetown University Press: 2011.
• Women in Religious Peacebuilding
  with Katherine Marshall, Claudia Zambra, Esther Breger, and Sarah Jackson. 
  USIP PeaceWorks, May 2011.
• Averting Hell on Earth: Religion and Prevention of Genocide
  USIP Special Report, September 2010.
• “Engaging across divides: interfaith dialogue for peace and justice” in State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2010. Edited by Preti Taneja.
  Minority Rights Group International, July 2010.

Available on usip.org:

• On the Issues: Burma