With almost three decades of combined experience in government and academia, Jonalyn Villasante currently serves as Committee Secretary of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Philippine House of Representatives and as a Senior Lecturer at the Miriam College Department of International Studies. Complementing these roles, she is also the Executive Director for Strategic Partnerships of the Women’s Alliance for Security and Peace. She holds a Master of Arts in International Relations and a Master of Diplomacy from the Australian National University, and earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts, major in Speech Communication, from the University of the Philippines. Ms. Villasante is a 2025–2026 Obama Leaders for Asia Pacific and a Professional Fellow of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative in Washington, DC, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, and the Kautilya Program in New Delhi. She has also completed specialized courses in regional security, human security, and peacebuilding at institutions such as Fu Hsing Kang College (Taiwan) and the United Nations University (Costa Rica). Her research interests include maritime and Indo-Pacific security, U.S.–Philippines security relations, ASEAN regionalism, Philippine foreign policy, and women, peace, and security, to which she actively contributes through academic and policy discussions.