--- title: Announcing New Cohort of Women PeaceMakers at Kroc IPJ description: Learn more about the 2025-2026 Women PeaceMakers Fellows at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. image: https://krocstories.sandiego.edu/hubfs/2025-2026%20Women%20PeaceMakers.png --- [Skip Navigation](https://krocstories.sandiego.edu/peace/the-innovating-peace-blog/announcing-new-cohort-of-women-peacemakers-at-kroc-ipj#main) [![University of San Diego](https://krocstories.sandiego.edu/hubfs/KROC/%5BKROC%5D%20Branding%20Assets/logo-usd.png)](https://www.sandiego.edu/) [Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies](https://www.sandiego.edu/peace/) - [About](https://www.sandiego.edu/peace/about/) Learn more about Kroc School history, faculty, events and more. 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The theme of this year's Fellowship is borders, gender and violence reduction. The Fellows are working to make border policy and the implementation of that policy less violent, using a gendered lens in their work or analysis.  The Fellowship offers a unique opportunity for peacebuilders who focus on gender, peace and conflict to engage in a cycle of learning, practice, research and participation that strengthens peacebuilding partnerships. The Fellows also co-create research intended to shape the peacebuilding field and highlight good practices for peacebuilding design and implementation. Since 2002, the Kroc IPJ at the University of San Diego's Kroc School of Peace Studies has hosted the Women PeaceMakers Fellowship. As part of the Fellowship, the Women PeaceMakers will visit the University of San Diego campus for two weeks. Please join us for the annual event, [A Conversation With the Women PeaceMakers on November 12](https://women-peacemakers-2025.eventbrite.com).  Read on to learn more about the newest cohort of Women PeaceMakers! ![ECP-photo - Estefania Castañeda Pérez (1)](https://krocstories.sandiego.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/ECP-photo%20-%20Estefania%20Casta%C3%B1eda%20P%C3%A9rez%20(1).jpg?width=300&height=375&name=ECP-photo%20-%20Estefania%20Casta%C3%B1eda%20P%C3%A9rez%20(1).jpg) ###### Estefanía Castañeda Pérez Estefanía Castañeda Pérez is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). Her research investigates how Latinx communities experience the law through policing and surveillance systems, and the consequences of these experiences on their racialization, well-being, and legal consciousness. She has been active in advocating for migrant and transborder communities by providing expert training on the transborder experience at local and national academic and government agencies. She also developed a Community Action Project aimed at empowering Transfronteriza women through RISE San Diego’s Urban Leadership Fellowship. ![Lilian Olivia-Passport Photo - Lilian Olivia Orero (1)](https://krocstories.sandiego.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/Lilian%20Olivia-Passport%20Photo%20-%20Lilian%20Olivia%20Orero%20(1).jpg?width=300&height=300&name=Lilian%20Olivia-Passport%20Photo%20-%20Lilian%20Olivia%20Orero%20(1).jpg) ###### Lilian Olivia Orero Lilian Olivia Orero is a Gender and Technology Lawyer and the Founder of SafeOnline Women Kenya (SOW-Kenya). She works to combat technology-facilitated gender-based violence through legal advocacy, feminist policy reform and digital innovation, including overseeing the AI-powered "SafeHer" app. Olivia challenges the gendered architecture of digital spaces, reframing them as platforms for peacebuilding and safety rather than control and harm. ![image - Noemy Molina (1)](https://krocstories.sandiego.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/image%20-%20Noemy%20Molina%20(1).png?width=300&height=386&name=image%20-%20Noemy%20Molina%20(1).png) ###### Noemy Molina Noemy Molina is a human rights lawyer and researcher with over 20 years of experience promoting the rights of women and vulnerable groups through international cooperation and collaborative advocacy. Her expertise includes gender-sensitive and diversity-focused approaches to research, peacebuilding, conflict transformation, civic space protection, and ensuring equitable access to justice. She has specialized in dialogue methodologies, conflict transformation, and multi-stakeholder consensus-building, to co-create sustainable and peaceful solutions to systemic challenges. In El Salvador, where civic space has faced increasing restrictions, she has led collaborative advocacy efforts aimed at transforming legal and public policy frameworks to advance human rights protections.  Learn more about the Women PeaceMakers and their impactful work on November 12 at the annual event, [A Conversation With the Women PeaceMakers!](https://women-peacemakers-2025.eventbrite.com) ![Kroc IPJ](https://krocstories.sandiego.edu/hubfs/krocipj-about-building.jpg) About the Author [Kroc IPJ](https://krocstories.sandiego.edu/peace/the-innovating-peace-blog/author/kroc-ipj) The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (Kroc IPJ) launched in 2001 with a vision of active peacebuilding. In 2007, the Kroc IPJ became part of the newly established Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, a global hub for peacebuilding and social innovation. The core of the Kroc IPJ mission is to co-create learning with peacemakers — learning that is deeply grounded in the lived experience of peacemakers around the world, that is made rigorous by our place within a university ecosystem and that is immediately and practically applied by peacemakers to end cycles of violence. ![](https://krocstories.sandiego.edu/hubfs/KROC/%5BKROC%5D%20Photos/rmi-hex.svg) ## Request More Information Please complete the form below to learn more about the Kroc School graduate programs. We will email you more information regarding each of our programs. If you would like to receive a program guide for a specific degree, please select a program. ![](https://krocstories.sandiego.edu/hubfs/KROC/%5BKROC%5D%20Photos/rmi-hex.svg) ### Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies [Joan B. 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