Julie Gwangmwa SANDA is the Acting Provost, Centre for Strategic Research and Studies (CSRS), National Defence College (NDC), Nigeria. She has more than 25 years of extensive policy research and training experience. Her interests and expertise include foreign policy and peacekeeping, women, peace and security, civil-military relations and gender-responsiveness in the security sector, among others and has published widely in these areas. She is also the Training Coordinator in the Centre managing its external training engagements as well as internal capacity building of Research Fellows. She also engages with ECOWAS, the African Union and related international organisations such as the African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA) and the Challenges Forum in fulfilment of the NDC’s mandate as ECOWAS Centre of Excellence for strategic level PSO training. Ms Sanda also facilitates courses, seminars and Exercises for several institutions both nationally and internationally.
A member of the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), Nigerian Society of International Affairs (NSIA), Fulbright Alumni Association of Nigeria (FAAN), Society for International Relations Awareness (SIRA), her current research interests include peace-keeping and foreign policy, women and security, gender and leadership, among others, and she has several publications to her credit.
Ms Sanda holds Political Science degrees of the University of Jos, Jos (B.Sc Hons 1983), and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (M.Sc 1986). She was also a Fulbright Junior Scholar at the Eliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University, Washington D.C.(1990/1), and a Swiss Federal Government scholarship awardee at L’Institut de Fédéralisme, Université de Fribourg, Switzerland (1996/7). Ms Sanda began her career in the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru as an Editorial Assistant and later a Research Fellow. She also worked as Research Assistant to the DG/CEO of the now defunct National Council on Intergovernmental Relations (NCIR) in the Presidency (1994-1996).
Her community service includes serving on the following boards in a volunteer capacity: Nkuzhi Learning Foundation, the Lanuch Development Initiative, the academic board of the WhiteInk Institute for Strategy and Education Research (WiSER) and was a two-term member of the International Board of Peace Operations Training Institute (POTI). Ms Sanda teaches Foreign Policy and Civil-Military Relations at the Bingham University Karu on pro bono basis.