Michèle Piercey, Deputy Executive Director

Michèle Piercey is a conflict prevention, stabilization, and peacebuilding practitioner with two decades of experience on assistance projects in conflict-affected states and supporting them from Washington DC.

Michèle acquired her affinity for peacebuilding when serving as a ceasefire monitor on the multinational Peace Monitoring Group (PMG) in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea in the aftermath of the island’s protracted civil war. There she saw firsthand the value of inclusion and dialogue on issues like weapons disposal and constitutional reform.  This experience sparked her career-long passion for community empowerment, conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

To the dismay of her parents, she left behind a steady government job to accept a role in Iraq, leading a small-scale civil affairs program in collaboration with the US Army Corps of Engineers, implementing small-scale projects around the country. She eventually joined USAID implementing partner staff on a post conflict local government assistance program in Baghdad, working with and local municipalities to strengthen the social contract and engage Iraqi citizens, especially women and youth, in civic life and the democratic process. This led to Deputy Chief and Chief of Party roles in Afghanistan, Tunisia, and Iraq, as well as dozens of short-term program strategy assignments on resilience, civil society, democracy, and stabilization projects in various countries including Lebanon, Ukraine, Libya, Mali, Sudan, and Philippines.

As principal advisor of the Peace and Stability and Democracy and Governance practices at Chemonics International, she guided the efforts of technical experts advancing excellence and innovation in foreign assistance. Previously, as senior vice president of the Strategic Solutions and Communications division, she worked to progress Chemonics’ knowledge enterprise, helping build the evidence base for ‘what works’ in development programs and deploy that knowledge to achieve sounder outcomes.

Throughout her career, Michèle has observed the value of collective, coordinated action on peacebuilding. She jumped at the chance to join AfP as the Deputy ED in April 2024 to help build the field of diverse organizations – especially from the global south --  who share the common goal of peace.