Therese Pearce Laanela is a mid-career PhD Student at Regnet. She has a background working with elections on the field, headquarters and policy levels, serving with organizations such as International IDEA, UNDP and the Carter Center.

In 2012 Therese’s assignments included an evaluation of 20 years of UNDP electoral assistance, and, for IDEA, supporting the Mongolian presidency of the Community of Democracies, and work related to Fiji and Afghan electoral issues. She served as Senior Programme Officer on electoral issues at International IDEA (1995-2006) and as Assistant Director for the Democracy Program at The Carter Center (2009-2011). Through IFES and IDEA, Therese has been deeply involved in the development of a variety of seminal publications, networks, databases and training curriculum on electoral administration, including the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network and the BRIDGE course package.

Prior to working at IDEA, were she is the Head of Team, Electoral Processes, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, based in Stockholm Sweden, she served in 1994 through UNDP, for the National Electoral Commission in Mozambique organising the first post-war elections, and in Cambodia in 1992-93 as a District Electoral Supervisor for the UN sponsored first multi-party election. Therese has consistently served as a presiding officer in Swedish elections and has done numerous international election observer and electoral assistance missions in Africa, Europe, and Asia for organisations such as the OSCE, the European Union, and the Carter Center. Therese has Canadian, Estonian and Swedish nationalities and recently relocated to Australia with her family. At Regnet, Therese will examine issues relating to trust in electoral institutions.