PhD in political science and founder and chair of the Oxford Research Group, which she founded in 1982 to analyse how and by whom nuclear weapons decisions are made worldwide. She has been a consultant to UNESCO as well as research director for Minority Rights Group, before she managed a self-help organisation in Africa. She is the author of many books and reports on defence and security issues and a gifted public lecturer in Europe, the United States, Russia, China and Japan. Her most recent book is "Power and Sex. A Book About Women" that show how to replace distorted notions of 'male' power and domination with an inner power, developed through body, mind and spirit.
Scilla Elworthy founded Peace Direct in 2002.
In 2002 Elworthy received the Japanese equivalent to the Nobel Peace Prize, the Niwano Peace Prize
Scilla Elworthy became an adviser to TFF in 1987.