Kathleen Houlihan is the founding Director of the Center for Global Peace through Commerce at Dominican University in Chicago, Illinois. She formerly served with the Illinois Office of Trade and Investment as deputy director for Asia Pacific and as Director of Chicago Sister Cities International, reporting to Mayor Richard Daley. Previously, Houlihan worked in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. Committee for UNDP; the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Democratic Institute. She has over a decade of election monitoring experience in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. She has a master's degree from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and an undergraduate degree from St. Mary's of Notre Dame.