GETTING TO KNOW DEAN

Dean Piedmont joined Creative’s Communities in Transition Division as a Senior Technical Advisor on armed group engagement and reintegration in 2018. He works on issues related to armed group engagement that include preventing and countering violent extremisms (P/CVE), disengagement and reintegration (D&R), disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) and security sector governance (SSG). 

Dean has more than 20 years of experience working in international development and complex conflict settings, including more than a decade with the United Nations, various NGOs, training institutes and centers of excellence and esteemed universities. He has worked extensively as a consultant for clients including the World Bank and the U.S. government providing support on policy development following peace agreements, and program development for armed actor reintegration and training facilitation. 

During his time with the U.N. and as a consultant, Dean was a professor teaching graduate classes with Denver University’s Graduate School of International Studies and the New School’s Milano School of Public Engagement. He was also an instructor for the Kofi Annan International Training and Peacebuilding Center at Monterey’s Post Naval Graduate School, among others. 

At the U.N., Dean served as a Senior Reintegration Advisory in Afghanistan and South Sudan for five years designing and managing D&R programs for former armed groups. An additional five years were spent at UNHQ supporting the Bureau of Conflict, Prevention and Recovery managing a global portfolio of reintegration programs of 22 armed groups. 

Following a Peace Corps assignment from 1997-1999 in the Federated States of Micronesia, Dean attended Denver University where he earned and MA in International Administration and was invited to teach in 2015. He publishes extensively and is regularly invited to present his work and serve as a panelist for think tanks. Dean also has a BA in history and political science from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

• EXPERTISE:

  Program and policy expert in conflict prevention, peacebuilding, recovering livelihoods, and reintegration, specializing in DDR, including economic, political, psychosocial, social reintegration, child protection, youth and gender. 

• EDUCATION:

  MA, International Administration, Denver University. Korbel School of International Studies

• DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE:

  20+ years of experience with government, NGOs, the United Nations, universities and development implementers globally, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leona and South Sudan