Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Value

A seasoned academic and policy advisor

Entity: College of Public Policy

Dr. McCandless is a widely published academic and seasoned policy advisor with three decades’ worth of experience.

The College of Public Policy (CPP) is delighted to welcome Dr. Erin McCandless to Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU) as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Value. Previous holders of this esteemed position are Dr. Wolfgang Drechsler (2022) and Dr. Mutlaq Al-Qahtani (2023).

Dr. McCandless is a widely published academic and seasoned policy advisor with three decades experience working on and in contexts affected by conflict, fragility, humanitarian and environmental crises. Her focus lies in understanding these contexts and how processes of peacemaking, peacebuilding and transformative social change unfold and are nurtured in synergistic ways through policies, institutions, norms and relationships towards the fostering of more just, sustainable and peaceful futures. She is currently a research associate in the Politics Department at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa (where she resides), Visiting Professor at Riara University, Kenya, and an associate researcher at the Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik. She is also the co-founder and former Chief Editor of the internationally peer reviewed Journal of Peacebuilding and Development.

Dr. McCandless regularly collaborates with the United Nations and other international and civil society organizations, conducting research and evaluation, and facilitating strategic, policy-relevant processes and training. Her direct policy work includes eight years as a senior civil society representative in the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS) process, where she collaborated closely with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the G7+, and international organization representatives, co-chairing a high-level technical working group and supporting the development of civil society policy platforms. Dr. McCandless is a sought-after speaker and author of more than 100 publications, including several impactful United Nations studies.