Abigail E. Ruane is an award-winning advocate, expert and organizer dedicated to leveraging strategic global coalitions to promote women’s rights, gender justice, and inclusive peace and security for all. She is a recognized women’s human rights expert and currently is PeaceWomen Program Manager for the Women’s International League for Peace and. Freedom (WILPF), the longest-standing women’s peace group in the world. As part of this role, Abigail leads WILPF’s advocacy in promoting a conflict prevention approach to development based on gender equality and the Women Peace and Security (WPS) agenda at the United Nations (UN). She is experienced in strategic advocacy and global coalition-building, and led development of PeaceWomen’s expanded Women Peace and Security mobile application, launched December 2013 and new website launched February 2015.. Abigail’s advocacy builds on her internationally recognized, award winning doctoral research on global negotiations over women’s rights. Before joining PeaceWomen, Abigail acted as WILPF-US Representative to the United Nations (UN), consulted on gender and sustainable development at the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), and taught human rights classes at Hunter College. She is committed to envisioning and creating a world of gender justice, and has written a book on using J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to teach about International Relations. She is also a board member of the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Partnership, dedicated to moving forward the human rights vision and impact of Eleanor Roosevelt in our time. Abigail holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and a B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University.
