Susan Markham is Director of the Peace With Women Fellowship program at the Halifax International Forum and is a passionate advocate for gender equality and female empowerment. Susan is a strategic leader who has worked in over 50 countries to connect academics, activists, implementers, and ideas across sectors. Prior to HFX, Susan served as a partner and co-founder of Smash Strategies and served at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as the Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. In this position, she advised Agency leadership on gender policy issues, led cross-sectoral programs, and represented the Agency to the White House and other departments, governments, civil society organizations and private sector partners. Susan has also led the efforts of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to increase women’s political participation globally as voters, activists, candidates and officeholders. Susan also led the Political Opportunity Program (POP) at EMILY’s List and worked at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), Participation 2000, and she managed and raised funds for five federal and state campaigns.