Allison Sturma leads the Public Education team’s state-based engagement of broad public audiences across the United States.

The Public Education team’s work is grounded in USIP’s mandate from Congress and focuses on providing resources and initiatives to citizens, schools and universities, and networks and organizations across the United States that are interested in learning about and working for peace. Through outreach activities and virtual and in-person programming, including the USIP Speakers Bureau, Sturma works with national networks and local organizations across the U.S. to inform Americans about USIP’s mission and work.

Sturma has fifteen years of experience in outreach, communications, and public education with USIP, U.S.-China Education Trust, Close Up Foundation, and Global Youth Leadership Conference. She has a bachelor’s degree with honors in political science from Union College and a master’s degree with merit from the University of Glasgow focused on the role of China in the international arena.

Publications By Allison

Keeping Peacebuilding Education Alive During A Difficult Year

Keeping Peacebuilding Education Alive During A Difficult Year

Monday, June 7, 2021

By: Allison Sturma

In April, more than 400 U.S. high school students, representing 85 schools in 26 states, joined a Zoom call for what normally would be an in-person Academic WorldQuest — a quiz competition sponsored in part by USIP that’s dedicated to foreign policy, international issues, global conflict management and peacebuilding. Following the cancellation of the national competition in April 2020, there was uncertainty about what WorldQuest would look like going into 2021. While some deferred participation, others saw it as an exercise in seeing what was possible: In-person competitions were hoped for, but local groups experimented with virtual platforms; teachers figured out how to recruit teams and organize remote study sessions; and students made room for extra learning in shifting schedules. 

Type: Blog

Education & Training

Forging Connections Between Students and Peacebuilders

Forging Connections Between Students and Peacebuilders

Thursday, October 31, 2019

By: Allison Sturma

While speaking to middle- and high-school students as part of the USIP and Inspired Classroom Challenge, Osama Gharizi, USIP’s senior program advisor for Iraq, said, “Next time you hear anything in the news about Iraq, which will most likely be bad, just remember that there are good stories, there is a sense of normalcy, there are positive things that are happening.”

Type: Blog

Education & Training

Taking Practical Ideas on Peace and Conflict to U.S. High Schools

Taking Practical Ideas on Peace and Conflict to U.S. High Schools

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

By: Allison Sturma

At West Central High School in Hartford, South Dakota, the students in JoAnne Bohl’s history classes have learned about—and lived in—a world defined by war and violent conflict. Bohl, a part of USIP’s Peace Teacher program, wants students to think about conflict in new ways, and to cultivate their own potential to contribute to positive change around the world.

Type: Blog

Education & TrainingYouth

Montana Students Take on the World

Montana Students Take on the World

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

By: Allison Sturma

The students from Gardiner, Montana’s high school didn’t have much experience in the world beyond “little towns among farmland,” as one of them put it. So, when the mayor of the state capital, Helena, spoke to them as a 1994 refugee from Liberia’s civil war, the link between distant conflict zones and pastoral Montana took on a captivating human form.

Type: In the Field

Education & TrainingPeace Processes

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