Women building peace, women keeping peace

Pronouns: she/her
Krystal is the Programme Executive at Friends of Europe responsible for the European Young Leader (EYL40) programme. She is also a member of the Women in International Security (WIIS Brussels) steering committee, where she is also a mentor. She previously worked for the Peace, Security and Defence programme at Friends of Europe. She has also held several roles as a freelance researcher (West African peace and development) and assistant researcher (political participation and diversity) and consults for various organisation working on African policy and governance.

Laurence Gillois is the Acting Head of UN Women Brussels Office. She has held several positions within the office, including as the deputy director and as a programme and partnership specialist. Before joining UN Women, she was an advisor on partnerships and resource mobilisation for DVV International. Prior this, she has worked for the European Commission as a programme specialist in EU external relations. She maintains strong experience working on women’s rights and women’s roles in political affairs.

A journalist and politician from Northern Ireland, Jane Morrice was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. Most notably, she is the former deputy speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and previously headed the Northern Irish office of the European Commission. Morrice has also served as the vice president of the European Economic and Social Committee twice, once before and once after the Brexit vote. She was a senior member of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition until its dissolution and spent two terms as the deputy chief commissioner of the Northern Ireland Equality Commission. Morrice began her professional career as a reporter for BBC Belfast.

Teresa Finik is an advisor to the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security. Prior joining NATO, she worked for Women and Gender Equality Canada, where she managed the International Relations, Policy and External Relations Directorate. Finik has also held several positions at Transports Canada, including as a senior policy advisor and the chief of parliamentary affairs. She maintains strong experience working on gender equality, women’s rights and women’s roles in diplomatic affairs and politics.

In her current role at the International Crisis Group, Floor Keuleers explores the interactions between gender relations and deadly conflict, including gendered impacts and experiences of war, the divergent ways men and women can aggravate or defuse conflict, and gender inclusion in peace talks and post-conflict recovery. Before joining Crisis Group as a project manager, Keuleers worked as an assessment officer and country focal point in IMPACT Initiatives’ Niger mission, focusing on data collection and analysis to improve the humanitarian response in Niger. Prior to that, she was a researcher at the Leuven International and European Studies Institute of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven).