Newsday columnist now director of mediation agency

As a journalist, she won more than seven awards for excellence in radio, television and print before joining the United Nations. She has served on several Peace Keeping missions including in Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia and Cyprus. She also worked as a senior advisor in the United Nations Department of Political Affairs in New York and worked at the Institute for Social Studies in the Netherlands and the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights.

She has earned a reputation for impartiality, fairness and for creative, strategic thinking.