I’m a little bit academic, a little bit hands-on

Years ago, as a high school kid, my family and I moved to Saudi Arabia, launching 20+ years living and working in the Middle East, including the last 10+ years working in international development. I've racked up lots of frequent flyer miles, stories, and on-the-ground experience. 

For the last two years, I’ve been an independent consultant (for more about my consulting work go here), working with international organizations on creating training curricula, building development programs in the Middle East, and supporting organizational development.

I also worked in international development for more than 10 years, culminating in my position as COO at The Munathara Initiative, a NGO based in Tunis and Washington, DC that engages youth in political debate through online competitions and live, TV broadcast debates. I led the implementation of projects in 11 countries in the MENA region, and led the production of more than a dozen live TV broadcast debates in six countries in partnership with four TV channels, including Al Jazeera Mubasher.

Now I am back in school, working on my PhD in political science at George Mason University. I have a master’s degree in international human rights from the University of Denver, Josef Korbel School of International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in International Studies and French from the University of Denver.

I’m excited about applying everything I have learned in my work to my research and academic pursuits.

My research interests include the politics of the Middle East and North Africa, political and ideological extremism, religion and politics, foreign assistance and development effectiveness, and gender and human rights. My dissertation is going to focus on exploring political and ideological extremism - trying to understand why and how extremism attracts its adherents and exploring the commonalities amongst different forms of extremism by comparing followers of ISIS and white nationalism.