Mercy Wambui is Chief of Communication and External Media Relations Section in the Office of the Executive Secretary. Her areas of expertise include public information and strategic communications using mainstream and social media platforms. At the ECA, Ms. Wambui has served in various capacities, including as Publications Advisor and as Communication Officer in the ICT Science and Technology Division before being assigned to focus on governance and regional integration. She also worked with the United Nations Mission in Liberia in the Office of the Spokesperson, writing speeches for the Special Representative and coordinating communications activities in the areas of governance and rule of law. She has published on Gender, ICTs and Media drawing on her experience as co-founder of an NGO -EcoNews Africa where she focused on piloting ICTs in community media initiatives among the Maasai in Simaanjiro District in Tanzania, Mangelete in Kenya and Kagaadi in Western Uganda; as well as tackling the telecoms terrain and mobilizing stakeholders in a series of campaigns to overhaul Kenya's first ICT Bill in the context of major shifts in the country’s democratic terrain. As a Stanford University Digital Visions Fellow, her published case study of women returnees involved in a 'Development through Radio' initiative in post-war Sierra Leone spawned interest from ICT and Community media researchers as well as the Hollywood based Shoa Foundation, which invited Ms. Wambui to learn from the efforts to record and reclaim post-war memory after the filming of Schindler's List. In the area of journalism, she contributed to the Irish Times, co-edited the bi-weekly EcoNews Africa, served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Conflict Watch, and wrote on community land rights and biodiversity issues. Her writing led to an invitation to join the faculty of the acclaimed Salzburg Global Seminar to lecture on Journalism in the Information Age and to engage in live debates on the Rio agenda and Beijing platform for action. Ms. Wambui is a member of the African Studies Association, the International Studies Association and the Association of Progressive Communications African Women's Networking Support. She also dabbles in creative fiction and creative non-fiction, as part of the Gotham Writers Workshop. She speaks several languages, has studied International Relations at Deakin University, Melbourne Australia (pending dissertation submission) and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education degree from Kenyatta University, Nairobi Kenya.