A lawyer, an actor, and a UN peacebuilder all graduated from Sanford’s Master of International Development Policy (MIDP) program in 2004. But all three were one student, Bautista Logioco.

Not many Sanford graduates have quite as diverse a set of skills as Logioco, but he refuses to take credit. When he reflects on his time at Sanford, one phrase still feels true more than two decades later. “It was a turning point,” he says. “It was the platform that launched me.”

Logioco, who earned his Master of International Development Policy in 2004, has spent much of his career working at the intersection of peacebuilding, conflict analysis, and public policy. He currently serves as a senior peacebuilding consultant with the United Nations, advising on conflict prevention and peacebuilding across Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Central Asia. Simultaneously, he has built a career in theater and acting in Argentina, exploring how art can create space for dialogue, reflection, and community.

What connects these seemingly incongruent paths is a consistent commitment to equality, dialogue, and helping communities navigate conflict.

From law to development policy

Before coming to Duke, Logioco was living in Argentina, working in Buenos Aires at the country’s largest law firm. As a young lawyer, he had already begun engaging with conflict-related issues in his home country. Still, he felt the limits of a purely legal approach.

“I had a law degree, which I’m very grateful for,” he says. “But when you study law, your brain is set up to think in a certain way. It’s very logical. If you do this, then this.”

MIDP offered something different. “My critical thinking went through the roof,” he says. “It was a platform to strengthen and deepen knowledge, skills, a network, and critical thinking.”

He credits the program’s core curriculum, particularly economics, policy analysis, and conflict analysis, with reshaping how he approached complex problems. “I even remember having dreams the first few months in English in economics,” he recalls. “I was like, oh wow, this means that something is staying.”

Just as important were the people. As a mid-career program, MIDP brought together professionals from around the world, each carrying deep experience from different contexts. “It’s really hard to explain in words the volume of experience that this brings to you in two years,” he says. “The networks are as important as the actual skill building.”

Launching an international career

After graduating from Sanford, Logioco moved to Washington, D.C., alongside two MIDP classmates, determined to break into international peacebuilding work. The months that followed were uncertain and intense, filled with job applications, informational meetings, and tight finances.

Those early days proved the value of the MIDP network and the program’s applied focus. His master’s project, completed in collaboration with UNDP on conflict prevention, opened doors that would shape his career. “I got my first job thanks to my master’s project at Duke,” he says. “That’s how I got my first contract.”

From there, his work expanded rapidly. He joined the Organization of American States, where he worked on peace processes in Colombia and supported diplomatic efforts between Colombia and Ecuador. He later moved into roles with the United Nations, including positions within the Peacebuilding Support Office in New York, where he oversaw multimillion-dollar peacebuilding portfolios in countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, Liberia, and Madagascar, among other.

Across roles, he developed a reputation for rigorous conflict analysis paired with practical, grounded solutions. “There was something really important that MIDP gave us,” he says. “The ability, through policy analysis, to look at problems and find solutions and options for the solutions.”

Listening first in the field

Over time, Logioco gravitated toward work that kept him close to communities affected by conflict. He describes his field work as providing some of the most meaningful moments of his career.

“I actually feel alive when I have the chance to go to the field and meet young peacebuilders, women peacebuilders, Indigenous peacebuilders,” he says.

Those experiences reinforced a core lesson. “What you realize is that, first off, you know nothing,” he says. “They know much more than you. What you need to see is how you can help them do their job.”

That humility shapes his approach to peacebuilding interventions today. His work often involves supporting national action plans on women, peace and security, conducting gender-responsive conflict analysis, and helping mobilize funding for peacebuilding efforts, including those implemented by local organizations. “Even when I undertake tasks away from the field such as strengthening a project design, developing guidance materials or facilitate trainings, I know they play a role in a larger chain.” He says. “And often times, these efforts also help mobilize funding and support to help these women organizations or youth organizations get increased participation in peacebuilding processes.”

Standing for equality

Asked what he stands for, Logioco answers without hesitation. “I stand for a more equal world,” he says.

Decades of conflict analysis have led him to the same conclusion repeatedly. “The more I go into conflicts and roots of conflicts, the more I confirm the deep structural, historic inequalities and exclusion are at the basis of issues,” he says.

He is careful with language, especially in international settings. “I really feel uncomfortable with the use of terms such as “vulnerable groups without further context” he says “as if these groups vulnerabilities were something isolated from their – and their ancestors - realities . “They are vulnerable, yes, but as a result of historic processes that made them vulnerable.”

That perspective informs his policy work and his engagement beyond formal institutions.

Peacebuilding through the arts

Alongside his UN work, Logioco has pursued a serious acting career, training at a conservatory in New York and performing extensively in films, tv and theater in the US, Colombia, Argentina and Spain. For him, the arts offer another pathway to dialogue.

“Theater is one of the art forms that still keeps that communion,” he says. “For the time that the play lasts, you are in one place with the audience.”

Several of the productions he has brought to Argentina tackle difficult social issues, including dignified dying, gender-based violence, and power dynamics in relationships. Others simply aim to entertain. Both matter, he believes.

“When you leave the theater, you ask yourself questions,” he says. “You go for dinner with your friends, and you ask. That helps build community in itself.”

His work has earned recognition, including nominations for major Argentine theater awards. Still, he sees these projects as extensions of his policy work rather than departures from it. “I’m very much interested in the links between peacebuilding and the arts,” he says. “It’s about helping people regain their voices, physically and politically.”

Why public policy still matters

For Logioco, public policy remains central to building more equal, just and peaceful societies. “The more I analyze causes of conflict, the more I identify policy gaps or policy imbalances to be at the core of conflict situations,” he says.

At its best, he argues, policy reflects dialogue and shared ground. “Public policy should be the result of a dialogue,” he says. “Not the winning of one group over another.”

That belief traces directly back to Sanford. He credits the MIDP faculty for expanding his understanding of complexity and trade-offs. “They made it easy to engage with things I had avoided,” he says. “It opened my mind again.”

More than anything, he remains deeply connected to the MIDP community. “Every single little step of this career that I have now is linked to my MIDP network,” he says.

Giving back, whether through mentoring students or staying engaged with the program, feels natural. “It’s part of giving back,” he says. “That platform launched me, and I’m still building on it.”