Naomi Miyashita, the policy planning team leader for United Nations Peace Operations, has joined the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public as the multidisciplinary research center’s first community fellow.
At the UN, Miyashita leads a team that analyzes and develops policy on strategic challenges to UN Peace Operations. She has served in a variety of roles at UN headquarters and in various conflict-affected countries, covering child protection in armed conflict; political affairs; the demobilization and reintegration of former fighters; and peacekeeping policy development.
In the coming months, Miyashita, currently on sabbatical, will be researching social media-enabled influence operations in the Central African Republic and Mali.
“We’re excited to have Naomi join the CIP as our first community fellow,” said CIP co-founder and faculty director Kate Starbird, a UW Human Centered Design & Engineering associate professor. “This forthcoming research, informed by her experience with UN peacekeeping operations, is greatly needed and will help expand our understanding of how disinformation targets peacekeeping missions in Africa.”
The CIP’s Community Fellows program is designed to foster diverse partnerships through research, education, projects, and programming while supporting collaboration, the exchange of ideas, creation of new initiatives, and nurturing a more interconnected community that supports the CIP’s mission to resist strategic misinformation, promote an informed society, and strengthen democratic discourse.
