Jennifer Santiago Oreta, Ph.D. is currently an Assistant Professor of the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Ateneo Initiative for Southeast Asian Studies (AISEAS) of the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. Dr. Oreta is currently a US-ASEAN scholar under the Fulbright program at TraCCC (Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption ) at George Mason University.
Under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III (2010-2016), Dr. Oreta was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) of the Philippine government. Professor Oreta was part of the Technical Working Group on Normalization representing the Philippine government in the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and led and initiated the crafting of a strategy paper on dealing with the communist insurgents outside the peace table. Now, Professor Oreta is a member of the Board and concurrent Executive Director of the Human Security Advocates (HSA).