Hi. I’m Annika. I’m a trained facilitator and community organizer, with an academic background in international development, conflict, and peace.
In facilitation, I am a creator of participatory spaces.
- In my recent role with the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, I hosted more than 100 online meetings, MC’d several in-person briefings, and facilitated numerous half-to-multi-day workshops.
- I have trained with the ICA:UK’s GFM, the Art of Hosting, Liberating Structures, and a 3-month course on complexity-based facilitation. My facilitation style is rooted the creation of participatory spaces and structures, emphasizing shared humanity.
- Prior to my work with the GPP, I co-facilitated four StartingBloc Institutes, teaching leadership development principles to young leaders and social entrepreneurs in the United States, as well as multiple advocacy workshops with the VSN-FDD-FSS and the Global Campaign for Education.
In community organizing, I am a convener and manager.
- I served as the Community Management Lead for the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. From 2020 to 2024, I’ve developed and managed communities of practice on different topics, including Environment, Climate, Conflict, and Peace, as well as Business and Conflict.
- Community management revolves around the strategic development of projects and spaces (both online and in-person) that strengthen ties between professionals. For more information, read this recent evaluation of one of my communities of practice.
In event management and communications, I am a designer.
- I managed the communications and marketing campaigns for the Geneva Peace Week in 2019 and 2020.
- I co-edited, produced, and hosted the Women in Foreign Policy podcast for a year.
- I designed the workshop and content programming for a 2019 multi-thousand person political convening in Nashville, TN.
- I marketed to, recruited, and then facilitated programming and coordinated the onboarding of 100 Fellows for five separate StartingBloc Institutes throughout 2016 and 2017.
- I managed invitations and organized the transportation of 100 participants for Boulder’s Conference on World Affairs.
- I know what makes events work, and I love the energy and possibility they create.
In politics and advocacy, I am an activist, organizer, and trainer.
- I served term as the President of the Sustainability Working Group of the Swiss VSS-UNES, focusing on sustainability in higher education politics in Switzerland, mapping the landscape and teaching university students around Switzerland how to lobby their university administrations to adopt more sustainability policies and practices.
- Previously, I supported young, progressive leaders running for office in my work reorganizing the volunteer base for Run for Something. I lobbied to increase funding for foreign operations and anti-poverty work in the United States budget. I convened a Democracy Science Fair with Represent.Us.
- I’m trained by the UN Foundation, RESULTS, and picked up some useful tips in my time with the office of Senator Michael Bennet and Organizing for America.
photo © Olivier Chamard
Annika Erickson-Pearson is an independent professional facilitator and community organizer. Most recently, she served as the Community Management Lead at the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, leading a community of 900 experts, practitioners, and policy-makers working on environmental peacebuilding. She received her Master’s degree from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Sept 2020, where her research focused on urban violence and gang desistance programs in the U.S. Annika is an experienced community organizer, political advocate and event manager, working with nearly a dozen NGOs over the past eight years, including the Conference on World Affairs, Represent.Us, Run for Something, and the Global Campaign for Education, and as a coach for individuals navigating challenge.
Send me an email. Start a conversation at [email protected].