About Emma

Emma Beals is an independent consultant with nearly two decades of experience in policy, strategy, and media, across a range of countries, contexts, and policy areas.

in addition to a range of ongoing projects and collaborations, Emma is a Senior Advisor at the European Institute of Peace, a conflict mediation organisation in Brussels, where she currently advises on the Syrian peace process after previously working on a wide Syria portfolio. She is also a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C. Emma is a former visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab and the co-founder of Syria in Context, a widely-regarded weekly briefing publication for practitioners and policy-makers working on Syria which shuttered in spring 20121.

In recent years, Emma has consulted for peacebuilding organizations, UN agencies, INGOs, civil society and advocacy organizations, for whom she provided policy, strategy, research, insights, events, media and advocacy strategies, and more. Throughout this time she has provided ongoing advice and guidance to government officials, elected representatives, and policy-makers across the world.

Emma's analysis is published by think tanks and in policy forums globally. She has appeared as a commentator on CNN, the BBC, PBS, Katie Couric, CBS, CBC, RNZ, TVNZ, and has been quoted in the Washington Post, New York Times, and The Guardian, among a host of other media and publications. Emma has briefed government and elected officials, UN agencies, INGOs, parliaments, think tanks, universities, and a range of other audiences.

Formerly an award-winning journalist, Emma was awarded for her 'moral courage' with the 2017 James W Foley World Press Freedom Award. She was also a James Beard Award nominee in the same year for a multi-part magazine series on the role of bread and wheat in the Syrian conflict. Emma's multi-part investigative series for The Guardian and others on humanitarian aid in Syria resulted in tangible policy change in the response and saw her invited to Beirut to provide strategic advice to UN agencies, INGOs, and donors in the country in the ensuing years. Emma's journalism has appeared in publications across the globe.

Emma is presently a member of the advisory council of Hostage US, an NGO dedicated to supporting US hostages and their families. She co-founded the Frontline Freelance Register in 2013 to better address the safety concerns of freelance journalists working in conflict, before working with leaders across the media industry to form the ACOS Alliance in 2014, in an attempt to find joint solutions to the dangers freelancers face in the field. She is a former trustee of the Frontline Club in London and was twice a Carey Institute Logan Non-Fiction Fellow and an IWMF Reporting Fellow.

Prior to her work on Syria, Emma worked as a consultant on major policy launches and in new government agencies across Whitehall, including the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Department for Energy and Climate Change, Department of Health, 2012 Olympics, and Health and Safety Executive. She also worked in government in her native New Zealand, where her first role was within the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct at the DIA in NZ.

You can find Emma on Twitter. For consulting, publishing, collaboration, media comment, or speaking inquiries, please use the form below.