Annabella B. Johnson, S-CAR MS Student

Annabella Busawule Johnson is part of the  2014 MS cohort, joining the S-CAR community this fall. Originally from Uganda, she has been living in Vienna,  Austria, for the last few years for her work with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). CTBTO is an international organization affiliated with the United Nations that works to ban nuclear explosions on the earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, underground, and underwater.  Annabella’s work entailed “software configuration management of the applications developed to enable the detection, monitoring and analyzing of data collected from the monitoring stations across the world so that no nuclear explosion goes undetected.”

Although most of her professional experience has been as a software engineer,  Annabella started to shift her focus to the field of conflict analysis and resolution after she wanted to use her skills in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance humanitarian response to crises. Her initial research into this subfield led her to the work that the organization ICT4 Peace was doing.  As she described it, “it was a exciting moment as I realized that there was a way to use my ICT skills in a programmatic way to be an enabler and source of empowerment that would allow individuals and organizations to resolve complex conflicts across the globe.”

Annabella’s decision to attend S-CAR at George Mason University was inspired by the University’s vision of “innovation, diversity and accessibility” that fit her career interest and approach.  As she said, “once I have merged my ICT skills with practical knowledge in conflict resolution, I hope to diversify my career portfolio to continue with my professional participation and contribution to the shared global mission of the United Nations and its affiliated agencies to promote peace, security, and stability on a global scale.”

Outside of her work,  Annabella likes to travel and read. One of her favorite authors is Chinua Achebe, whom she describes as “a very well respected and inspirational African writer who has contributed to the preservation of African culture through his educational writing that has served the diverse readership globally.” As she noted, “without literary leaders like him, our children and their children may never learn of their culture. He has educated the world about African culture in a way that we can be proud of.”