Board and Council

The Board has the overall responsibility for the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue, its finances, strategy and operations. There is also an advisory Council that elects the members of the Board and provides professional guidance and input on issues of importance for strategic development.

Board

Øyvind Svendsen

Øyvind Svendsen is the chair of the board. He holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Copenhagen and is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Policy (NUPI). Svendsen has a master's degree from the London School of Economics. His research focus is mainly on international order, security and defense policy, Norwegian foreign policy, and the European Union. He received his bachelor's degree from Innlandet University College and has taught foreign policy, peace and conflict studies, as well as other topics.

Stig Hoseth

Stig Hoseth is the deputy chair of the board. In his professional life he is the department director of the Norwegian Forest Museum (the Anno Museum). Under his leadership, the museum has worked with «Dialogue in Nature and Environmental Management» with a focus on issues related to wolves, hydropower, and wind power, partly in collaboration with the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue. Stig is a trained landscape architect, is a former chief municipal executive, and has extensive experience with various studies, user participation issues and political decision-making processes.

Laila Bokhari

Laila Bokhari, member of the board, has a background as a researcher, diplomat and politician. She has researched terrorism and radicalization at the Norwegian Defense Research Institute and at the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Policy, with a special focus on the Middle East, Europe, South and Central Asia. She is an author and lecturer, and was a member of the July 22 Commission. Bokhari is a former Norwegian undersecretary, and has worked with the United Nations, with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and with NATO. Her educational background is from, among other institutions, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Hilde Ekberg

Hilde Ekeberg, member of the board, holds a bachelor's degree in cultural and awareness studies and is pursuing her master's degree in cultural studies. She is a consultant at the Norwegian Craft Institute in Lillehammer, a former general secretary of Youth For Understanding and a former assistant secretary general of the National Council of Norway's Children and Youth Organizations. She has been an advisor to the aid organization FORUT (For Development) and a board member of FOKUS (Forum for Women and Development Issues). Ekeberg has held several political positions and is a former parliamentary candidate for Norway’s Christian Democratic Party.

Trine Kjær Christensen

Trine works as a dialogue advisor at the NCPD. She has worked as a college lecturer at the Norwegian Defense College, where she taught cultural understanding and gender issues in military operations. Trine has worked at the Danish Embassy in Ghana and conducted fieldwork in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Trine holds a bachelor's degree in social anthropology and a master's degree in peace and conflict studies from the University of Oslo.

Nisveta Tiro

Nisveta Tiro is an urban planner and works as an advisor for Gausdal Municipality. Tiro is the group leader for the Socialist Left Party (SV) in Øyer Municipality and has experience in organizational work from the Red Cross.

Council

Lene Espelund

Lene Espelund, deputy chair of the council, is a secondary school social sciences lecturer with a master's degree in conflict and human rights. Lene works as an adviser to the Innlandet police district, and previously was a teacher of international relations at the Labor Movement's folk high school. She has experience with organizational work in Norway and abroad, including Norwegian Church Aid and Doctors without Borders.

Lavleen Kaur

Lavleen Kaur is a social scientist, actor, stage artist and artistic director of «The Diverse Stage». Lavleen has a master's degree in criminology from the University of Oslo and a five-year degree in classical Indian dance from London. Lavleen has been a doctoral fellow at the CULCOM project and at the Oslo Law School. She has researched social control, integration, racism, forced marriage, war conflicts and war traumas, and has seen how these issues affect attitudes and views of «the others» across generations.

Arne Strand

Arne Strand holds a doctoral degree in Post-war Recovery Studies from the University of York, and is the director of the U4 Anti-corruption Resource Center at Chr. Michelsen's Institute (CMI). Arne Strand has previously headed Norwegian NGOs in Afghanistan and the Cyprus office of PRIO (Peace Research Institute Oslo).

Benedicte Bull

Benedicte Bull is a professor of political science at the Center for Development and the Environment (SUM) at the University of Oslo. Benedicte Bull has led the Norwegian Network for Latin American Research (NorLARNet) since 2008, and has also led the Oslo Academy of Global Governance since 2012. She chairs the board of the Nordic Center for Latin American Studies (NILAS). She has researched topics related to development issues, the environment, institutions and elites in Latin America, and in international development organizations.

Birgit Engsæter Madslien

Birgit Engesæter Madslien holds a graduate degree in engineering from the Norwegian University of Technology (now NTNU), and has worked as a science teacher at Lillehammer High School for 34 years. Birgit Engesæter Madslien has experience from the NORDEM emergency preparedness group, the Center for Human Rights since 1997, and has had assignments in the Balkans, in Africa and Asia, plus most recently in Ukraine in the spring of 2019.