Diana is working as Political Engagement Officer in the Cabinet of the General Manager and Chief of Staff of the NATO Communications and Information Agency in Brussels. She provides advice on the political and military spectrum of Alliance’s strategic priorities. Diana has founded the Diversity and Inclusion and Women Empowerment movement inside the Agency and she is an Advisory Council Member of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, a GMF Marshall Memorial Fellow and a member of Women in International Security. Diana advocates for the integration of a gender perspective in international security and foreign policy and for strengthening the gender-security nexus. She has been nominated for an Award – Honourable Mention for Integration of a Gender Perspective at NATO.
She has previously worked in academia, the private sector, NATO Joint Force Command Naples, The Italian Delegation to NATO, the European External Action Service and Non-Governmental Organisations on strategic, partnerships and policy matters. Diana has undertaken field work in 2018 in Ghana, Africa, where she contributed to community engagement, capacity building and research on women’s rights. She has worked with girls from Ghana slums and the Muslim community to enhance women and girls’ awareness of human rights in a country where issues such as child marriage, child prostitution, gender-based violence, illiteracy, child abuse are still a very diffused. She also trained women and girls on leadership, presentation and communication skills hence empowering them with tangible abilities they could employ in the future.
Diana has published several articles and research papers for the NATO Defence College and international think tanks on foreign policy and security and defence issues.
Born in Naples, Italy, Diana De Vivo holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and Politics and is currently pursuing an MLitt (Research programme) in Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews (United Kingdom) – The Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV). She is interested in the contribution of women to counter terrorism and countering violent extremism, radicalisations, terrorism and religion and terrorism and the media. She is Italian mother tongue and fluent in English and French, good in Spanish.