Valentina is an enthusiastic researcher and practitioner with a passion for social justice and community development. Her work has been focusing on the use of communication in development for almost fifteen years, particularly in the Global South. She has worked for different London-based international NGOs as well as governmental and inter-governmental agencies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since joining academia, her research has looked at the use of Communication for Development in Peacebuilding and has brought her to carry out studies in both conflict and post-conflict areas of the world, with a focus at the community level. She is also interested in developing new frameworks for applied research in the context of crisis response interventions as well as long term displacement. She has conducted evaluations for Mercy Corps, UNICEF and Search for Common Ground on the use of participatory communication, participatory art and edutainment for conflict transformation and peacebuilding.