Leanne Erdberg Steadman

Leanne Erdberg Steadman (LinkedIn) is the founder of The Dignity First Project, an R&D effort exploring how institutions can recognize, account for, and design for dignity as both a fundamental human right and something people actually experience. She is also a Senior Fellow with The Alliance for Peacebuilding.

Leanne is an international security practitioner who has spent nearly two decades driving global strategy, research, and norm-shifting policy across peace and security, conflict, and governance. She has served in senior government and philanthropy roles, including Director for African Affairs and Senior Advisor on the White House National Security Council staff, Senior Director for Strategy and Impact at Open Society Foundations, Director of the Program on Violent Extremism at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Counterterrorism Advisor at the U.S. Department of State.

Her broader work spans violent extremism, African peace and security, and responsible research and policymaking. She has also led her own strategy consultancy, developed responsible uses of artificial intelligence for the federal government for Accenture Federal Services, and began her career with roles at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the World Health Organization, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and a U.S. congressional campaign. Leanne holds a J.D. with honors in the concentration of international law and a B.S., magna cum laude in mass communication studies, both from Boston University.