Laura Perez

Focus Areas: Children and Armed Conflict, Human Rights, Humanitarian Affairs

Laura Perez is an Adjunct Professor at SIPA, teaching INAF U6151: Children and Armed Conflict in Fall 2023. She is also an international consultant working on children and armed conflict, human rights, and humanitarian affairs. She previously served as the Helen Hamlyn Senior Fellow and Director of Graduate Studies at Fordham University’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, where she directed the academic programs in humanitarian studies and led the children and armed conflict research pillar. Originally from Venezuela, she has 18 years of experience working on the protection of civilians in situations of armed conflict and is an expert on the UN Security Council’s children and armed conflict mandate. She has worked on these issues with UN agencies and humanitarian organizations in New York and Geneva, and in the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal.

Her previous positions include Humanitarian Advocacy and Policy Specialist with UNICEF, Child Protection Team Leader with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Regional Child Protection Specialist on the MRM with UNICEF, Central Africa Analyst with the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, Protection and Advocacy Adviser with the Norwegian Refugee Council, Protection Officer with UNHCR, and Coordinator of the Refugee Assistance Program of the New York City Bar Association. She holds an International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance from Fordham University, a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Université de Bourgogne, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Literature and Society from Brown University. She is fluent in English, French, and Spanish. 

Education

• International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance (IDHA), Fordham University
• Master’s Degree, Department of Law and Political Science, Université de Bourgogne
• Bachelor’s Degree, Department of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University