Working at the nexus between research and practice, the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) program is comprised of researchers and practitioners seeking to promote and facilitate a higher order of integration between these domains. The PAM program is home to the largest existing collection of implementation data on intrastate peace agreements, and PAM team members regularly provide research support to ongoing peace processes on issues of peace agreement design and implementation.
The PAM database is a unique source of qualitative and quantitative longitudinal data on the implementation of 34 Comprehensive Peace Agreements (CPAs) negotiated between 1989 and 2012. Drawing on this world class, peer-reviewed database, PAM researchers have developed a quantitative methodology to track the progress of peace accord implementation. The PAM database serves as a valuable tool for analysis, which the Kroc Institute uses to support the negotiation and implementation of peace accords, including the implementation of the Colombian peace accord.
Acknowledgments:
The Peace Accords Matrix was originally conceived by John Darby, Professor of Comparative Ethnic Conflict at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies from 1999 until his death in 2012.
The Team
The PAM team consists of faculty, staff, consultants and student researchers at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
Josefina Echavarría Álvarez
Dr. Josefina Echavarría Alvarez is the Director of the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) program at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs. As the director of PAM, she leads PAM’s researchers, faculty and staff in the South Bend campus, as well as PAM’s field units that carry out official monitoring of the implementation of peace accords in real time, in both Colombia and the Philippines. Josefina earned her Ph.D. in Peace, Conflict, and Democracy from the Jaume I University (Spain), an M.A. in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation from the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and a B.A. in Government and International Relations from the University Externado (Colombia).
Madhav Joshi
Madhav Joshi is Research Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute and Associate Director of the Peace Accords Matrix. His research focuses on peace agreement design, implementation, and post-civil war peacebuilding. He has published on these topics in leading social science journals. He is co-editor of Understanding Quality Peace (with Peter Wallensteen, Routledge, 2018).
Jason Quinn
Jason Quinn is Associate Professor of Political Science and a Senior Researcher with the Peace Accords Matrix. Quinn researches civil war, with a special focus on peace agreement design and implementation. He has published on these topics in International Studies Quarterly, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Negotiation Journal, International Interactions, International Studies Perspectives, and other outlets.
John Paul Lederach
John Paul Lederach is Senior Advisor to the PAM Barometer Initiative, and Professor Emeritus of International Peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute. Widely known for his pioneering work in conflict transformation, Lederach is involved in conciliation work in Colombia, the Philippines, and Nepal, plus countries in East and West Africa. He is author of 22 books, including The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace (Oxford University Press, 2005).
Laurel Quinn
Laurel Quinn is Associate Director of Operations and Policy for the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM). She manages operations for several grant projects for the PAM program, Colombia Barometer Initiative, and Peace Accords Matrix Mindanao project. She also leads policy outreach with U.S.-based policy communities. She is co-editor of the volume Civil Society, Peace, and Power (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), and she holds a master’s degree from the Seton Hall School of Diplomacy and International Relations.
Carolina Serrano Idrovo
Carolina Serrano Idrovo is a Peace Accords Matrix Research Associate and holds an M.A. in International Peace Studies from the Kroc Institute, a B.A. in Political Science from the Universidad de los Andes, and a Specialization in Social Evaluation of Projects from the same University. She previously served as a researcher for Colombian think-tank Fundación Ideas para la Paz and the International Organization for Migrations in Bogotá focusing on the reintegration process of former combatants.
Cristian Sáez Flórez
Cristian Sáez Flórez is a Peace Accords Matrix Research Associate and holds a degree from the Keough School Masters of Global Affairs, with a concentration in International Peace Studies. As part of his studies, he interned in the Missing Migrants and DNA program with the Colibrí Center for Human Rights. Cristian previously worked as a junior specialist with the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies’ Barometer Project in Colombia, and served as a research assistant at the Museo Casa de la Memoria de Medellín.
Allison Kielhold
Allison Kielhold is a Peace Accords Matrix Research Associate and is a 2022 graduate of the Universidad de los Andes M.A. in Peacebuilding and M.A. in International Law. Her graduate research focused on the gender perspective in international law as related to conflict and peace, as well as the gender perspective in the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement with the FARC-EP.She has also worked with the Inter-American Commission of Women at the Organization of American States on their efforts to advance the Women, Peace and Security agenda in the Americas and move beyond traditional concepts of security in order to better address the complex challenges facing women in the region.
Melinda Davis
Melinda Davis is a Peace Accords Matrix Research Associate for PAM Mindanao (PAM-M). She holds a Master of Studies degree in Diplomatic Studies from the University of Oxford, during which she researched the presence of the human security paradigm in diplomatic fora. Previously, through the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, she worked for the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development as a coordinator for the Vatican COVID-19 Commission’s peace and security sector, which aimed to respond to Pope Francis’s call to respond to social and political issues revealed and exacerbated by the pandemic through the lens of Catholic social thought. She has also interned with the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations. Melinda is a graduate of the Kroc Institute’s undergraduate program, having completed her BA in psychology and peace studies.
Mariafernanda Burgos Ariza
Mariafernanda (Mafe) Burgos Ariza is the Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist. Mafe provides M&E support to grant projects in Colombia and the Philippines. Prior to joining the Kroc Institute, she worked with the PAM Barometer Initiative team in Colombia. Mafe has worked in humanitarian, development, and international cooperation projects focused on the processes of design, implementation, and M&E. She has worked on projects in her home country, Colombia, as well as in Cameroon, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Syria, and Switzerland. Mafe earned her M.A. in Advanced Practice in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford, and her B.A. in Political Science from the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia.
Jena O’Brien
Jena O’Brien is the Communication and Digital Media Specialist for the Peace Accord Matrix (PAM) program. She is responsible for the program’s public relations, graphic design, photography, videography, and podcast production. Jena graduated from Arkansas State University in 2022 with an M.S. in Strategic Communications and a B.A. in Public Relations from Bluffton (Ohio) University in 2019.