About WIIS Switzerland
WIIS Switzerland is an affiliate of Women In International Security (WIIS) Global. WIIS Global, based in Washington DC, is the premier organization in the world dedicated to advancing the leadership and professional development of women in the field of international peace and security. WIIS Global and its over 30 national affiliates sponsor leadership training, mentoring, and networking programs and organize events on current policy debates. WIIS Global and its affiliates also aim to inform and educate the broader public about the nexus between gender and international peace and security by supporting research and advocacy activities.
WIIS Switzerland, founded in 2020, aims to support, connect, and engage women working in international peace and security across Switzerland, to provide a platform for collaboration and exchange across sectors – from government to international organizations, the private sector, civil society, and academia – and to build bridges to the global community of WIIS. As we grow, we will also keep expanding our portfolio and activities – so stay tuned!
Meet Our Team
Steering Board
Julia-Silvana Hofstetter
President & Steering Board Member
Julia-Silvana Hofstetter is President and Founder of WIIS Switzerland. She is also Senior Advisor at the ICT4Peace Foundation and Co-Head of the Peace & Security Program at the Swiss Forum on Foreign Policy. She was a WIIS Global NextGen Fellow on Cybersecurity & Gender 2021 and previously worked for the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich, the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP), and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). Julia holds an MA in International Relations and Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) Geneva. Her interests include the WPS agenda, digital peacebuilding, emerging technologies and armed conflict, and cybersecurity & gender.
Daliborka Jankovic is Senior Adviser to the Representative on Freedom of the Media at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). She previously worked for the Peace and Human Rights Division of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). Daliborka is a professional in international human rights and foreign policy and holds an MA from the University of Zurich, specializing in comparative politics. In her career she has been focusing on questions of peace promotion, human rights and gender issues. Other areas of interest include the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the interlinkages between human rights and international humanitarian law.
Darja Schildknecht
Darja Schildknecht is a Doctoral Researcher in Political Science at the University of Basel and part of the Gender, War and Security Research Group. Her research critically engages with the agenda of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and its intersection to gender. Amongst others, she previously worked as Deputy Director of the think tank foraus – Swiss Forum on Foreign Policy and was deployed by the Swiss Armed Forces to NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) in Pristina. In 2014, she graduated from the London School of Economics (LSE) with a Master’s degree in Development Studies. Darja’s research interests include gendered security strategies, WPS, postcolonial feminism, and private military and security companies.
Daliborka Jankovic
Steering Board Member
Steering Board Member
Organizing Board
Lara Twerenbold
Communications Officer
Lara is a graduate student in International Affairs specializing in Global Security at the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID). She is currently completing an exchange semester at Sciences Po Paris in the International Security program. Previously, Lara worked as Program & Communications Associate at the Geneva-based Martin Ennals Foundation on the topics of human rights defense and advocacy. She also worked as an interview contributor for the London-based organization Women in Foreign Policy. Her interests include the WPS agenda, feminist foreign policy, international humanitarian & human rights law, strategic studies and European security policy. Also a classical musician, Lara is currently pursuing lyrical voice studies at the Geneva Conservatory of Music. She regularly performs as a soloist in concerts with piano and orchestra.
Mentoring Program Manager
Vera holds a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology with a specialization on Anthropology of Transnationalism and the State. After having completed a specialized training with the Swiss Armed Forces focused on Military Peace Support Operations in areas marked by conflict and crisis, she contributed to a safe and secure environment within the ALTHEA mission of the European Union Force (EUFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the Liaison and Observations Team. She also worked as a Guest Relation in the Swiss Pavilion at the World Expo in Kazakhstan and completed a fieldwork in Kazan, Russia, on the subject of cross-cultural comparison and self-perception. Vera's interests lie in civil society and social protest movements, the construction of ethnic identity, political control mechanisms, as well as international peacekeeping, global responsibility, national reconciliation processes and women's participation in peace & security policy.
Névine Schepers
Névine holds a BA in Asian Studies from the University of Sydney and a Dual Master’s Degree in European and Asian Affairs from the universities of Sciences Po in Paris and Fudan in Shanghai. She is a Senior Researcher in the Swiss and Euro-Atlantic Security Team at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zürich. She is also co-editor of the monthly policy brief series CSS Analyses in Security Policy. Before joining the CSS in 2020, Névine worked as a Researcher at the London-based think tanks the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and VERTIC on non-proliferation and nuclear policy. Her areas of research include nuclear arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament issues.
Vera Wagner
Community Manager
Mentoring Program Manager
Chatrina Schumacher
Co-Event Manager
Chatrina is a graduate student in International Affairs specializing in Global Security at the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID). She holds a BA in International Relations with a Major in International History from the University of Geneva. Chatrina previously interned at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in the Arms Control and Disarmament section and at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich in the Swiss and Euro-Atlantic Security team. Apart from her studies, she is currently part of the Technology and Security Initiative at the IHEID and is working on an applied research project on peace finance. Chatrina’s interests include armed conflicts and peace promotion, gendered security strategies, emerging disruptive technologies, postcolonial feminism, and the post-Soviet space.