ABOUT
I’m Abby, the founder of Continua.
I’m an experienced facilitator and project manager and have worked in the field of international peace and security for over 25 years. Earlier in my career, I focused on more traditional security issues while serving as an army officer, a peacekeeper, and a diplomat. Today, my work focuses on the paradigm shifts needed to create lasting peace and security. I’m a diplomat by nature as well as training; my ability to navigate uncertainty, synthesize diverse views, and identify common interests is key to my approach.
My experience includes leading complex initiatives that require thoughtful stakeholder management, from supporting public sector reform in conflict-affected contexts to designing and delivering tailored workshops to help governments address interdisciplinary challenges like environmental insecurity. I have advised government leaders in multiple regions on sensitive organizational reforms and know how to listen to leaders, ask the right questions, and get to the heart of complex problems when advising on strategy, policy, decision-making and resource management.
I have seen traditional approaches to reforms repeatedly fail to produce the intended results. This is why I increasingly focus on tackling underlying issues at the heart of insecurity today, including environmental harm and the effects of trauma on public institutions and the communities they serve.
HOW I WORK
We live in a time of accelerating change, in which we know we need to build more equitable and sustainable systems. In this context, my work supports organizations in (re)defining their unique value and contributions to the systems change that is already underway. I do this in part by drawing from regenerative approaches, which bring the qualities of healthy ecosystems to organizational strategy and decision-making. The principles below are drawn from excellent work done by others including the Regenesis Group and Daniel Christian Wahl (Designing Regenerative Cultures).
Image credit: Gaia Orion and Theo Orion
Moving into a more harmonious relationship with our planet is key to addressing the complex and interrelated challenges we face today.
Transformation comes from people and communities thinking, speaking and acting for themselves, aligned with their environment.
Offering others space and respect is essential; we don’t have to look far to see the consequences of imposing our will on one another.
We are all connected; what happens to someone on the other side of the world is just as important as what happens to us.
We live and work in systems of systems; fostering sustainable peace and development requires a willingness to transform political and economic systems that promote conflict and extraction.
