Mary Anne Feeney is the Senior Director of External Relations at International Peace Institute (IPI) and serves as part of the Management Team of the organization. In this capacity she works to form strategic partnerships to advance IPI’s mission to support and promote durable peace and sustainable development.

She currently leads IPI’s Events and Resource Development Teams. Prior to this position, Mary Anne served as the Director of Events at IPI. In that capacity, she managed IPI’s event planning team and oversaw the organization of hundreds of IPI meetings and events in New York and internationally that included policy fora, book launches, conferences, seminars, and workshops. These events featured all levels of leadership – from Heads of State to local NGO representatives from around the world. IPI events bring together all sectors working on international affairs, as well as all levels of leadership – to engage in meaningful discussion to increase understanding of a particular issue in order to promote peace and sustainable development. Events at IPI are rooted in the research programs and are purposely designed and organized to bridge divides, and inform and engage decision-makers and practitioners working in international relations. In particular, IPI events bring together the Secretariat and field staff of the UN, regional and sub-regional organizations, and their member states, along with leading scholars, experts, and influential civil society actors.

Before joining IPI, Mary Anne worked as the Executive Coordinator at Amnesty International USA. There she worked as the liaison between the Executive Director and the staff members of the organization. Mary Anne supervised the executive office and handled all external outreach for the Executive Director. She developed strategy for fundraising events and media outreach, coordinated special events, attended and spoke at various events on behalf of the Executive Director, coordinated with the research unit and relevant programs to plan the campaigning efforts of the launch of actions and reports, and edited the internal, national newsletter. She has worked in journalism as an editor of studentadvantage.com, and she was the co-founder of the online nonprofit academic service, virtuallyadvising.com.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications with a concentration in journalism from Fordham University and has completed some postgraduate work in international relations at New York University. She also earned a certificate in International Organizations Management from the University of Geneva.

Selected Publications

• “Steps Taken in UN Women, Peace and Security Agenda, But Long Road Ahead” (The Global Observatory, July 2013)