Professor 'Funmi Olonisakin is Vice-President and Vice-Principal International and Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at King's College London. She founded the African Leadership Centre (ALC), which aims to build the next generation of African scholars and analysts, generating cutting-edge knowledge for peace, security and development in Africa. Prior to serving as Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Group (CSDG) at King's College London (2003–2013), she worked in the Office of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict.
Olonisakin has positioned her work to serve as a bridge between academia and the worlds of policy and practice. Her most recent research has focused on reframing narratives of peace and state-building in Africa, and on future peace, society and the state on this continent. In January 2015, she was appointed by the then United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, as one of seven members of the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE) on the Review of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture. In 2016, she was appointed as a member of the Advisory Group of Experts for the UN Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security. She chairs the Africa Regional Advisory Committee of the Open Society Foundation.
In 2016, the University of Pretoria (UP) appointed Olonisakin as an extra-ordinary professor in the Department of Political Sciences, and in 2018, she was appointed to the Council of the United Nations University.
