Pia Hansson is the Director of the Institute of International Affairs and its two centres, the Centre for Small States Studies and the Centre for Arctic Policy Studies. Pia holds a B.A. degree in Communication from the University of Minnesota and an M.A. degree in International Relations from the University of Iceland. She also pursued an M.F.A. programme in Television Production at the City University of New York. For years Pia worked as a Broadcasting producer and director, both in Iceland and abroad, until she became the media specialist at the Embassy of the United States in Iceland from 2002-2006. In the winter of 2007-8 Pia served as the Head Spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), a Nordic ceasefire monitoring mission in Sri Lanka, on behalf of the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs.