Gabriel Maisonnave

Gabriel Maisonnave joined WFDD as the Education Program Manager in the fall of 2017. Even though as a kid he loved to write short stories and had a radio show every Saturday at 1 pm on a local radio station, life took him away from storytelling and towards international relations and conflict resolution. He got his BA in International Relations from the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires and he founded a youth development non-profit organization with four friends in La Plata, where he was living at the time.

After working with different organizations in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Turkey and the U.S., he discovered the power storytelling had to transform conflicts and he decided to go back to his childhood passion: telling stories.

In 2015 he was one of 50 people worldwide selected as a Rotary Peace Fellow and he moved from Argentina to North Carolina to pursue his Master's degree.

He got his MA in Media and Journalism with a certificate in Peace and Conflict Resolution at UNC-Chapel Hill, and since then he has helped tell the stories of peace-builders from all around the world, the stories of organizations in Kenya and Uganda working in conflict settings and the stories of those in Haiti who were forgotten by most aid organizations, among other things.

Gabriel's thesis project: “Can You Hear Me Now?: Stories International Development Organizations Left Behind” was recognized with the Minnie S. and Eli A. Rubinstein Research Award by the UNC School of Media and Journalism.

He will now help middle school and high school students tell their stories through WFDD's Radio Camp and Radio 101 programs.