Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies

Julie Thompson works at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva. She was a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs in 2015-2016 and co-convener of the 2016 Brown International Advanced Research Institute on Humanitarian Response and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Her work focuses on humanitarian assistance, particularly coordination, aid flows, humanitarian funding mechanisms, and the link between relief and development. She was the director of the United Nations system for tracking global humanitarian aid flows from 2012 - 2015. Prior to working with the United Nations in Angola, South Africa, Switzerland and New York, she worked for several international non-governmental organizations in Africa and Latin America, lectured at the University of California – Los Angeles, and was the managing editor of the Comparative Education Review. She holds a PhD in Comparative and International Education from UCLA and a MA in International Education and Policy Analysis from Stanford University.