Anna Sherburn
Anna Sherburn has over 15 years of experience shaping law, justice, and security solutions across government and multilateral institutions, including a decade focused on preventing terrorism. Anna currently serves as the Deputy Executive Director at Hedayah, where she works closely with the Executive Director to deliver the organization’s operations, policy, and strategic delivery. She oversees the implementation of Hedayah’s global programs, manages cross-functional teams, and ensures the delivery of impactful initiatives that support communities in preventing and countering extremism and violent extremism.
Before joining Hedayah, Anna served as Adviser and then Head of the Countering Violent Extremism Unit at the Commonwealth Secretariat, where she was responsible for multilateral Counter Extremism policy engagement and delivered technical assistance to governments, civil society, and key institutions involved in countering extremism and violent extremism across Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.
Earlier in her career, Anna held executive roles in the Australian Government, including Director and Assistant Secretary of the CVE Centre from 2014-2018, where she helped to reshape the country’s approach to early intervention and resilience-building. She also served as an Adviser in the Commonwealth Counter Terrorism Coordination Centre, supporting coordination of whole-of-government responses to terrorism threats.
Anna holds an MSc in International Public Policy from Queen Mary University of London, and a Diploma in Languages and a BA in Political Science from the University of Melbourne. She has undertaken a UNITAR Fellowship in Peacemaking and Preventive Diplomacy and completed the Australian National University’s National Security College Executive Development Program.