Thompson (she/her) serves as Managing Director at the Peace and Security Funders Group (PSFG), in Washington, DC. PSFG is a global network of foundations and philanthropists that support a range of peace and security issues, from conflict and atrocities prevention; to nuclear, climate, and cyber security; to transitional justice; to women, peace, and security; and beyond. She helps funders communicate and collaborate around these issues in order to increase their impact and work toward a more peaceful and secure world for all. Core to this work is helping funders better understand the centrality of equity, inclusion, and justice to peacebuilding and shared security.
In addition to her work at PSFG, she consults with Wayfinding Partners, a strategic consulting firm that supports leaders to manage change and develop their organizations with a racial justice lens.
Previously, Thompson worked at Independent Sector, where she supported a network of over 500 philanthropies and nonprofits through capacity-building and programming. She also founded and managed PeaceMeals, a program that leveraged cooking classes and facilitated dinners to promote community-building and wellness in the wake of conflict and trauma. She has conducted PeaceMeals in conflict and post-conflict zones and for her work with PeaceMeals, she was awarded the Andi Foundation’s prize for “Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary things.”
Following her Scoville Fellowship at the Truman National Security Project Educational Institute, she was hired on as the Grants Manager, until leaving for graduate school in the United Kingdom. She received an MA in International Relations from Queen’s University Belfast in 2013 as a George Mitchell Scholar. Her research examined methods of rehabilitation and reconciliation for survivors of political conflict. She was selected as a Fulbright Scholar to Morocco, where she researched the country’s Equity and Reconciliation Commission. Her fieldwork in peacebuilding and post-conflict rehabilitation have brought her around the world, including to North Africa, Senegal, Northern Ireland, and Iraq.
Thompson has been published in multiple outlets including Inside Philanthropy, Peacebuilding Deeply, and Conflict Trends Journal, which highlighted her fieldwork research on transitional justice in Morocco. Her undergraduate degrees are in Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies, International Relations, Political Science, and African Studies from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She is also a professionally-trained chef, a novice urban gardener, and is using her peacebuilding skills as a mother.