Vivienne O’Connor, Ph.D.

Dr. Vivienne O'Connor has over twenty years of experience in the fields of rule of law, justice and security, peacebuilding, human rights, atrocity prevention, and transitional justice as an advisor, practitioner, trainer, and academic. From 2001 until 2007, she worked as the Rule of Law Programme Officer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in her native Ireland. From 2007 to 2016, Vivienne served as a Senior Rule of Law Advisor at the United States Institute of Peace.

Vivienne has managed or implemented justice projects in a range of countries, including Afghanistan, Burma, Haiti, Liberia, Libya, Nepal, and Syria. In 2012, she pioneered the development of professional trainings for rule of law practitioners working for the U.N. Department of Peace Operations, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, and the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

In 2016, Vivienne established TransformLaw, a New York-based consulting firm. Since then, Vivienne has integrated her research on complexity and systems thinking, leadership and change management, and trauma studies into a range of consultancies, including for the U.N. Development Programme, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Folke Bernadotte Academy in Sweden.  Vivienne has served as an Adjunct Professor at William & Mary Law School and the University of Melbourne Law School. She holds a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) from the National University of Ireland, Dublin, and a Master’s Degree in International Human Rights Law (LLM) and a Ph.D. from the National University of Ireland, Galway.

She is the author of several books, including Model Codes for Postconflict Criminal Justice (Volumes I and II) and co-author of Combating Serious Crimes in Post-Conflict Environments: A Manual for Policy-Makers and Practitioners.