Visiting Research Fellows
Francisco Diez (spring 2026-fall 2026) will complete his yearlong visiting research fellowship at the Kroc Institute in December 2026. Diez has used his fellowship to conduct an exhaustive review of his practical experiences in peacebuilding and political mediation in Latin America. Based on this, he will present a conceptual framework and a set of tools, strategies, and techniques useful for both scholars and practitioners in the fields of peacebuilding and mediation.
Diez is a longtime mediator with extensive experience working with governments, international and national nongovernmental organizations – The Carter Center, The Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Organization of American States (OAS), and others – as well as with universities and civil society organizations in Latin America.
As the representative of The Carter Center in Venezuela from 2002 to 2004, he co-mediated between former President Hugo Chávez and the opposition with the Secretary General of the OAS. Diez also served as the coordinator of the Regional Support Network for the UNDP Democratic Dialogue Program for Latin America and the Caribbean from 2004 to 2007, providing support on peacebuilding processes to the UNDP national offices. As The Carter Center representative in Latin America from 2007 to 2010, he created the Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador-Colombia programs. During this time, Diez launched the Binational Dialogue Group for Ecuador and Colombia and served as the mediator between both presidents.
Diez was a representative for the Kroc Institute’s Peace Accords Matrix program from 2014 to 2019, advising the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace in Colombia and helping to create the Barometer Project there to monitor the implementation of the country’s 2016 peace accord. Also on behalf of the Kroc Institute, he was a special advisor on the Alianza Civica movements in Nicaragua, and advised the UN resident coordinator on mediation in Ecuador during the 2018 crisis.
From 2020 to 2023, Diez was a full-time member of the Stand By Team of senior mediators at the UN Mediation Support Unit. Since 2023, he has been in private practice, consulting on the UNDP Perú and advising María Angela Holguín, the personal envoy of the UN Secretary General for Cyprus.
Diez earned his law degree from the University of Buenos Aires Law School in 1982, followed by a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, JFK School of Government, where he was awarded the John Vernon Prize for Academic Excellence. This was followed by postgraduate studies at the University of Maryland and the London School of Economics, on International Mediation.
Anamaría Trujillo (academic year 2026-2027) earned her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology with a designated emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research at the University of California, Davis in June 2026. For her doctoral dissertation, she performed two years of participant observation with female demobilized combatants from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) in the city of Medellín, Colombia. Her work was supported by the AAUW, Fulbright, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. She also holds an M.A. in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University.
Trujillo’s time at the Kroc Institute will be channeled toward her book project, “Making and Un-Making Reincorporation: An Ethnography of Women Ex-combatants in Medellín.” Through her book, she wants readers to immerse themselves in female ex-combatants’ lives, and through their stories understand reincorporation processes less as a transition from war to peace and more as a process of orientation that requires pragmatic adaptations from former combatants. Through these adaptations, former FARC women contribute to building peace and transforming Colombia.
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