Catherine Skroch

Catherine Skroch is a George Mitchell Scholar pursuing her Masters in International Relations at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She studies mechanisms for healing survivors of trauma and conflict, with a special interest in food, nutrition, and building community around the table. To this end, she is also the founder and director of PeaceMeals, a program which facilitates healing for survivors of trauma through creative cooking classes and dinner parties. Before coming to Northern Ireland, Catherine was a Herbert Scoville Peace Fellow and Policy Associate at the Truman National Security Project, where she specialized in democracy, human rights, development, and nonproliferation policy. Prior to joining Truman, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Morocco, researching transitional justice via the Equity and Reconciliation Commission. While in Morocco, she worked at a medical rehabilitation center for victims of torture and advocated for the Right to Reparation. She has also conducted fieldwork research in Senegal on local resolutions to the civil war in the Casamance region. In addition, Catherine has volunteered with dialogue and reconciliation campagins in Israel/Palestine, and the inner city of Milwaukee. Her writing focuses on human rights, torture, rule of law issues, and foreign affairs. Catherine is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she has vowed to never spend another freezing winter.