Elizabeth A. "Lili" Cole

Elizabeth A. “Lili” Cole is a Visiting Fellow at the School for  Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, now based in the San Francisco area. Until December 2017, she directed the Fellowship Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace and led the research stream on reconciliation, developing methods to evaluate the impact of reconciliation projects in post-conflict contexts. Research projects included work on reconciliation practices and evaluation in Sri Lanka and Colombia, and reconciliation barometers as a tool for peacebuilding. Lili specializes in human rights and longterm reconciliation following violent conflict or state repression, with a focus on history, education reform and transitional justice. Prior to joining USIP, she was an assistant director in Asia Society’s Education Division, and at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, she developed an international research project on political reconciliation, which led to a multi-authored volume, Teaching the Violent Past: History Education and Reconciliation (Roman & Littlefield, 2007). She received her PhD in Russian literature from Yale University and has additional expertise in Chinese language, culture and society.