For the 2025-2026 year, the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (Kroc IPJ) has selected three peacebuilders from around the world for the Women PeaceMakers Fellowship.
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.
Read on to learn more about the newest cohort of Women PeaceMakers!
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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.
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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.
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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!
