Andrew Blum

In July 2016, Andrew Blum joined the Kroc School of Peace Studies as the executive director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. Since then, Blum has grown the Institute to ten full-time staff and developed a dynamic portfolio of applied research initiatives focused on preventing cycles of violence, both globally and in the San Diego-Tijuana region. Prior to coming to the University of San Diego, Blum served on the senior leadership team at the United States Institute of Peace as the vice president for planning, learning, and evaluation. In this role, he led efforts to improve monitoring, evaluation, and learning across all of USIP's programming. At USIP, he also led efforts to establish RESOLVE (Researching Solutions to Violent Extremism), a global network of local researchers focused on identifying effective strategies to address violent extremism.

Prior to joining USIP, Blum was assistant director of the University of Maryland's Center for International Development and Conflict Management, where he was the director of the Project on International Communication and Negotiations Simulations (ICONS) and oversaw the undergraduate minor in conflict management. In the field, he has conducted research and worked on peacebuilding programs in Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Guyana, and Turkey. He holds a Ph.D from the University of Southern California and a BA from the University of Virginia.