In her role as Senior Research Fellow and Programme Officer, MaryAnne was instrumental to the establishment of Nigeria’s foremost civilian peacebuilding training Centre, while supporting the development of research and policy solutions in the areas of capacity building for peace and preventing and countering violent extremism in Africa. She has also gained extensive experience as a peacebuilder notably working with impacted groups and populations, including ex-associates of Boko Haram, and returning communities, while designing policy recommendations for different levels of actors on the reinsertion and reintegration of vulnerable groups and communities.

Her career in Peace and Security in Africa spans almost two decades, with experience at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, the Nigerian Institute for Peace, and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), the German Agency for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ) in Ghana, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in Abuja, Nigeria.

MaryAnne has a BA in History and International Studies, an MA in African Peace and Conflict Studies, and is a final year PhD Candidate at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Miss Iwara is also a Mo Ibrahim African Leaders Fellows, and a recipient of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship and the Policy Leaders Fellowship from the School of Transitional Governance (STG) of the European University Institute (EUI).