Media – Peacebuilders Unite!

Danielle M. Reiff is no stranger to public speaking, and she is a great guest on radio and podcasts.

Emmy Award Winning TV Producer Interviews Danielle About Peacebuilders

As the United States grapples with political polarization, we are seized with our differences and disagreements. The pandemic exacerbated our disconnection from each other. We are struggling to find common ground.

Under these conditions, a country can be at greater risk for political violence. That risk is evident today in rising hate crimes and threats against public officials such as members of Congress, judges, election workers, and school board members.

According to March 2024 polling by PBS NewsHour, one in five adults believe Americans may have to resort to violence to get the country back on track. The number of Americans who support violent protests has doubled over the last decade.

When you add in that nearly half of Americans distrust the government, and we have easy access to guns…

…the potential for political violence increases.

When public figures and fast-spreading disinformation promote hatred and division…

…the potential for violence increases even more.

Yet, most Americans do NOT believe that violence is a solution to domestic political divisions. Many American citizens and residents want to help our country, but don’t know how.

At Peacebuilders, we believe that peace is possible, and it begins within ourselves and our communities. By working together to strengthen the bonds of respect, empathy, and trust among us, we can build our collective resilience against attempts to divide us.

The more we embrace and promote the values of love, nonviolence, and unity across our traditional divides, the greater our chances of curbing political violence.

To help our country, I’m calling on you to be a peacebuilder.

Peacebuilders unite!

World Radio Day 2016 in South Sudan.

To celebrate World Radio Day in 2016, Danielle did a radio interview with South Sudan’s Eye Radio. You can listen to it below. She discussed how radio can be used for constructive citizen engagement in political processes, as well as to foment violence. It is critical for media producers and consumers alike to be ethical.

Gabriel, the South Sudanese journalist who interviewed Danielle that day, was working at his local radio station when violence erupted in his community. Rather than fleeing quickly to save his life, he showed incredible dedication by taking the essential radio equipment with him to safety. Gabriel and a colleague hid in a swamp for days before putting the equipment on a makeshift barge and floating it down the Nile River. Gabriel is a peacebuilder!

Shep Cohen Interviews Danielle on "The World of Work".

Danielle M. Reiff's Bio

Danielle M. Reiff is a peacebuilder, writer, and editor who specializes in supporting political transitions. Her Peacebuilders opinion column has been published in Newsweek and The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Her first book, an edited volume called Overcoming Information Disorder, will be released in July 2025.

Danielle is the founder of the non-partisan Peacebuilders initiative to promote empathy, dialogue, and other forms of nonviolence as a means of building social cohesion and mitigating the risk of political violence in the U.S.

For two decades, Danielle promoted and supported democracy, human rights, and peace around the world as an American diplomat with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). She served as an official observer for elections on multiple continents. In Uganda, Colombia, and South Sudan, Danielle helped ensure citizens and civil society groups were officially engaged in national peace and reconciliation processes. When the Republic of Georgia experienced its first post-Soviet transition of power through the ballot box, she supported governmental and non-governmental actors to advance democratic reforms. Danielle also played a leadership role in helping Sri Lanka implement legislation that exponentially increased the percentage of elected women leaders across the country through the 2018 local government elections. Danielle is currently writing her memoirs, called Peace Unearthed, about this period of her life and career

Danielle was an inaugural Rotary Peace Fellow as she earned a Masters degree in international relations and peace studies from the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in Paris, France. She is currently working toward an Executive Education Certificate in public leadership from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Danielle earned a Bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of Wisconsin, where she also served as Director of the Distinguished Lecture Series at the student union. Danielle was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the West African country of Burkina Faso in the final years of the 20th Century. She speaks Spanish and understands French, in addition to her native English.

Danielle's Podcast Interviews

Ep. 78 Mom Danielle Reiff on Balancing a Career and Motherhood, & Celebrating All Our Neurodivergent Kids Have to Offer

According to the podcast host, “Danielle was such a wonderful, knowledgeable person to talk with.” This podcast on balancing a career and motherhood covers: challenges and triumphs of raising kids with neurodivergent demand avoidance; traveling and living abroad with neurodivergent kids; and the importance of stability and secure attachment.