Kristin Lord is executive vice president of the United States Institute of Peace, effective January 28, 2013. In this role,  Lord serves as the second-ranking officer of the Institute and helps lead the Institute's internal management team, oversee and integrate substantive programs, and manage growth. 

From 2009-2013, Lord was executive vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security where she oversaw the center’s research and served as one of three members of the center’s leadership team. During her tenure, CNAS published more than 110 reports and policy papers; launched programs on technology and national security and the military, veterans and society; diversified and strengthened the center’s funding base; and earned recognition as a premier think tank in the field of national security. While at CNAS, Lord also authored reports on U.S. grand strategy, cyber security, diplomacy and development.

Prior to joining CNAS, Lord was a fellow in the foreign policy studies program and Saban Center for Middle East Policy at The Brookings Institution. At Brookings, Lord directed the science and technology initiative of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World and led two major studies, one on human development in the Arab world and one on U.S. public diplomacy.

In 2005-2006, Lord served as a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow and special adviser to the undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs. In that role, she worked on a wide range of issues including international science and technology cooperation, international health, democracy and the rule of law, and public diplomacy.

From 1995-2008, Lord held various roles at The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, including associate dean for strategy, research, and external relations and, earlier, associate dean for management and planning. In her most recent position, she oversaw the school's six research centers, graduate admissions, public affairs, and strategic initiatives. During her tenure at the Elliott School, she launched three master's programs, ten certificate programs, a global network of university partnerships, the school's skills curriculum, and numerous educational programs for students, diplomats, and mid-career professionals from the public, private, and non-profit sectors. A member of the faculty, she also taught courses on U.S. public diplomacy, U.S. foreign policy, and the causes of war.

Lord is the author of Perils and Promise of Global Transparency: Why the Information Revolution May Not Lead to Security, Democracy or Peace (SUNY Press 2006), Power and Conflict in an Age of Transparency, edited with Bernard I. Finel (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000), and numerous book chapters, policy papers, and articles. Her articles have appeared in Washington Quarterly, World Politics Review, CNN.com, Defense News, Joint Force Quarterly, Roll Call, The Hill, International Studies Quarterly, Science, Foreign Service Journal, National Interest on-line, The Christian Science Monitor, Politico, Huffington Post, and Foreign Policy.com. She has provided expert commentary to news outlets such as the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal and appeared on NPR, Al-Jazeera, BBC Radio, VOA, PBS, and MSNBC.

Lord is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the board of advisors at the Center for a New American Security. She received her master's degree and doctorate in government from Georgetown University and her bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, in international studies from American University.  She has been married to her husband Jeff Lord, an international trade attorney at Latham & Watkins LLP, for nearly twenty years. They have a teen-aged son.

Rachel Brandenburg is a program officer for Middle East Initiatives. She previously worked at the State Department in the Office of Middle East Transitions as the Tunisia assistance coordinator, and in the Middle East Partnership Initiative office. Prior to joining the State Department, she was a Middle East program specialist at USIP primarily supporting work related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iran, including the Senior Working Group for Middle East Peace, co-chaired by former National Security Advisors Samuel R. Berger and Stephen J. Hadley, and publication of the Iran Primer: Power, Politics, and U.S. Policy. Brandenburg has significant experience across the Middle East and North Africa, including as a Critical Language Scholarship recipient in Jordan, a Fulbright Scholar in Israel, and conducting research in Tunisia, Turkey and Iran. She completed a Master's of Science in Foreign Service at Georgetown University with a focus on foreign policy and international security and holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Middle Eastern studies from Tufts University.

Publications: 

• “Iran and the Palestinians,” in The Iran Primer: Military, Politics, and US Policy, ed. Robin Wright. (USIP Press, 2010).

Georgia Holmer is a senior program officer in the Center for Gender and Peacebuilding at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Holmer leads the Women Preventing Extremist Violence (WPEV) project, which seeks to identify and strengthen the roles that women play in preventing conflict in their communities, and will be piloted in Nigeria. Holmer also serves as an instructor in the Gender and Peacebuilding course offered by the Institute’s Academy.

Since 1996, Holmer has worked on programs to understand and prevent violent extremism, terrorism, radicalization, and conflict.  Prior to joining USIP, Holmer worked as an analytic consultant and facilitator/trainer designing and teaching courses on understanding radicalization and developing effective strategies to prevent and counter extremist violence through structured analysis.  Holmer’s work has focused on a wide range of topics related to countering violence and conflict including an examination of post-conflict trajectories of violence in Bosnia, an analysis of political violence in Greece, an assessment of civil liberty and civil rights issues in countering violent extremism in the United States, and a re-evaluation of specific analytic tools and techniques used to understand the dynamics of radicalization.

Previously, Holmer served as a terrorism analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for ten years. Her assignments included lead analyst on the inter-agency Kosovo Task Force in 1999, senior analyst on a multi-national task force on extremist violence in Greece at the U.S. Embassy in Athens, senior analyst in support of counterterrorism investigations at the FBI’s Office of the Legal Attaché in Copenhagen, Denmark.  She is the recipient of five Exceptional and Superior service awards from the FBI over the course of her career.

Holmer is trained in conflict analysis and resolution, cross-cultural communication and a variety of structured analytic techniques and methodologies.  She holds a master’s degree in international relations from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree from the School of International Service at American University.  She has lived and worked in over 8 countries.

Recent Conferences and Presentations:

• OSCE Seminar on Women and Terrorist Radicalization, June 2013, Dushanbe, Tajikistan (panel speaker)

• UN Women International Summit on Women and Peacebuilding (with Centre for UN Peacekeeping), February 2013, New Delhi, India (invited contributor)

• Counterterrorism Expo, May 2012,Washington, DC: “The Mindset of Violent Extremists” (panel speaker)

• International Studies Association Annual Convention, April 2012, San Diego, CA: “Radicalization:  A New Application of Red Hat Analysis” (presented paper)

Dominic Kiraly leads USIP’s distance learning initiatives and oversees the development of online courses. He designed the Institute’s platform for online courses and currently manages a team of curriculum developers and technicians.

As a faculty member, Dominic regularly gives training sessions on a variety of topics including working effectively with interpreters; guiding principles for stabilization and reconstruction; and civil resistance.

Kiraly is the co-founder and former vice president of the Washington D.C-based consulting company TechChange (The Institute for Technology and Social Change). 

Prior to joining USIP, Kiraly worked for the United Nations-affiliated University for Peace (UPEACE) in Geneva, Switzerland, where he developed training programs in West Africa and managed publications on conflict prevention.

Kiraly has a Master's of Business Administration from Eastern University and a Master's of International Law and Human Rights from UPEACE. He also studied International Relations at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth as a Ph.D. candidate (ABD).

Areas of Expertise

• Technology and Peacebuilding
• Education and Training
• Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Publications

• “Nonviolent Civic Action: A Study Guide Series on Peace and Conflict” (United States Institute of Peace, 2009).

John S. Park is senior Asia adviser at USIP, where he directs Northeast Asia track 1.5 projects. These include the U.S.-China Project on Crisis Avoidance and Cooperation, the U.S.-South Korea-Japan Trilateral Dialogue in Northeast Asia, the U.S.-China-Japan Dialogue on Risk Reduction and Crisis Prevention, and the Korea Working Group. Park advises Northeast Asia policy-focused officials at the Departments of State, Defense, and the Treasury; on the National Security Council; and on Congressional committees. 

Park joined USIP from Goldman Sachs, where he worked on U.S. military privatization financing projects. Prior to that, he was the project leader of the North Korea Analysis Group at the Harvard Kennedy School. Park received his master’s of philosophy and doctorate from Cambridge University. He completed his predoctoral and postdoctoral training at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

Publications:

• “The Leap in North Korea’s Ballistic Missile Program: The Iran Factor,” NBR Analysis (December 2012)
• “Assessing the Role of Security Assurances in Dealing with North Korea” in Security Assurances and Nuclear Nonproliferation (Stanford University Press, 2012)
• “Testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission” (Washington, DC, April 2011)

Robin Roberts has more than 16 years of experience in convening, facilitating, and mediating a wide range of multi-party dialogues on land use, transportation, healthcare, wildlife resources, and storm water management. He was stationed in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010, where he managed the development of the Network of Iraqi Facilitators, a cadre of facilitators who engage citizens in facilitated dialogues on a variety of critical issues in the country’s emerging democracy. He rejoined USIP in 2012 as deputy director of Iraq, Iran and North Africa Programs to manage the implementation of multiparty dialogues where diverse stakeholders identify and discuss the contentious issues that divide them and, more importantly, work together to explore options for resolving those issues. 

Sarhang Hamasaeed is a Program Officer for the Iraq and North Africa Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). He joined USIP in February 2011 and works on program management and monitoring and evaluation. He is a member of the USIP Evaluation Core Group, and Project Cycle Teams. Hamasaeed has more than ten years of strategy, management, and monitoring and evaluation experience in governmental, nongovernmental, private sector, and media organizations. 

As a Deputy Director General at the Council of Ministers of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (2008-2009), Hamasaeed managed strategic government modernization initiatives through information technology with the goal of helping improve governance and service delivery. As a Program Manager for the Research Triangle Institute International (2003-2004), he managed civic engagement and local democratic governance programs in IraqHamasaeed has worked as a planning and relations manager at Kurdistan Save the Children (1997-2002). Hamasaeed has also worked for the Los Angeles Times and other international media organizations.

He holds a Master’s degree in International Development Policy from Duke University (2007) and is a Fulbright alumnus.

Ambassador Princeton N. Lyman was appointed United States special envoy for Sudan on March 31, 2011. Immediately preceding his tenure as special envoy, he served as U.S. senior advisor on North-South Negotiations, where he led the U.S. team focused on supporting on-going negotiations between the parties to Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Ambassador Lyman previously worked as an adjunct senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. From 1999 to 2003, he was executive director of the Global Interdependence Initiative at the Aspen Institute.

Ambassador Lyman’s previous career in government included assignments as deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs (1981-1986), U.S. ambassador to Nigeria (1986-1989), director of refugee programs (1989-1992), U.S. ambassador to South Africa (1992-1995), and assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs (1996-1998). From 2008-2010, he was a member of the African Advisory Committee to the United States Trade Representative. He began his government career with the U.S. Agency for International Development and served as USAID director in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 1976 to 1978.

Ambassador Lyman is a member of several boards, including, the Fund for Peace, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the board on African science academy development for the National Academy of Sciences.

Ambassador Lyman has a PhD in political science from Harvard University. He has published books and articles on foreign policy, African affairs, economic development, HIV/AIDS, U.N. reform, and peacekeeping. He has published op-eds in The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, and International Herald Tribune. His book, "Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa’s Transition to Democracy" (U.S. Institute of Peace Press), was published in 2002. He was co-director of the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force Report, "More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa", issued in 2006, and co-editor of "Beyond Humanitarianism: What You Need to Know About Africa and Why It Matters" (Council on Foreign Relations) published in 2007.

Ambassador Johnnie Carson was sworn in as assistant secretary of state for the bureau of African affairs, on May 7, 2009. Prior to this he was the national intelligence officer for Africa at the National Intelligence Council, after serving as the senior vice president of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. (2003-2006).

Carson's 37-year foreign service career includes ambassadorships to Kenya (1999-2003), Zimbabwe (1995-1997), and Uganda (1991-1994); and principal deputy assistant secretary for the bureau of African Affairs (1997-1999). Earlier in his career he had assignments in Portugal (1982-1986), Botswana (1986-1990), Mozambique (1975-1978), and Nigeria (1969-1971). He has also served as desk officer in the Africa section at State's bureau of intelligence and research (1971-1974); staff officer for the secretary of state (1978-1979), and staff director for the Africa Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives (1979-1982).

Before joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Carson was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania from 1965-1968. He has a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from Drake University and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the School of Oriental and Africa Studies at the University of London.

Ambassador Carson is the recipient of several Superior Honor Awards from the Department of State and a Meritorious Service Award from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The Centers for Disease Control presented Ambassador Carson its highest award, "Champion of Prevention Award," for his leadership in directing the U.S. Government's HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in Kenya.

Lieutenant commander John Bright joined USIP in June 2013 as a Navy Fellow to work on Afghan issues for one year before he redeploys to Kabul for a second tour. 

He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1997 with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering.

His career as a Naval Flight Officer included assignments to Sea Control Squadron Two-Nine (VS-29), (March 2000 to March 2003); Training Squadron Eighty Six (VT-86) as a Strike NFO Instructor (March 2003 to March 2006); Airborne Early Warning Command and Control Squadron 126 (VAW-126) as a Air Control Officer (ACO) and Combat Information Center Officer (CICO) (July 2007 to November 2008); and NATO E-3A AWACS Squadron Two as a TD/ Mission Commander (May 2009 to August 2011). 

LCDR Bright has flown combat support missions in Operation Enduring Freedom (September-December 2001), Operation Iraqi Freedom (2007-2008), Operation Afghan Assist (January-March 2011), and the beginning weeks of Operation Unified Protector of the Libyan Anti-Qaddafi revolution (April-May 2011), and on various Operation Active Endeavor missions patrolling the Mediterranean for illicit smugglers.  He flew on the first cycle of missions on October 7th, 2001 as well as on the first ever NATO AWACS detachment to be based out of Mazar-i-Sharif in January 2011.

LCDR Bright’s various ground duties have included:  Operations Officer, NATO Squadron Two, Chief of Mission Planning, and OIC of the U.S. Navy Element, Geilenkirchen, Germany, Safety Department Head and Aviation Safety Officer (VAW-126), Student Control Officer for Training Wing Six, NFO NATOPS Officer and Head Scheduler (VT-86), Information Technology Officer, Scheduler and Operations Officer, and Ordnance Branch Officer (VS-29).  In 2004-2005, LCDR Bright served as an Individual Augmentee to the U.S. Mil-Group, U.S. Embassy Bogotá, Colombia as a Naval Liaison Affairs Officer as part of Plan Colombia.

He is a recipient of various personal and campaign awards including the Defense Meritorious Service Medal (2 awards), the Air Medal (4 awards), the Navy Commendation Medal (2 awards), the Joint Achievement Medal (1 award), and the Navy Achievement Medal (2 awards).  He is fluent in Spanish and has a basic knowledge of Afghan Farsi (Dari) and is a graduate of the Naval War College’s JPME I program.

LCDR Bright is assigned to Naval District Washington, D.C., as an Afghanistan-Pakistan Hand (AfPak Hand).  On his first of two deployments to HQ ISAF, Kabul, Afghanistan, he worked in both the Force Reintegration Cell (FRIC) and on the CJ3 staff.  At the FRIC he was the ISAF Liaison Officerfor Human Resources and Capacity Building to the Afghan Peace and Reintegration Program (APRP) where he liaised with the High Peace Council and the executive arm of the Joint Secretariat.  While on the HQ ISAF Deputy of Operations CJ3 staff he was a plankowner of the Insider Threat Mitigation Team where he coordinated Counter-Intelligence, Force Protection, and Cultural Awareness efforts with both coalition members as well as strategic partners within the Afghan National Security Forces.

Dominik Balthasar is a transatlantic post-doctoral fellow for international relations and security (TAPIR, 2012-14). Having conducted research on trajectories of state-making and state-breaking in Somalia/ Somaliland, his work has centered on aspects of state fragility, conflict, and development.  Prior to his post-doctoral position, Balthasar was a teaching fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science and held affiliations with the Crisis States Research Centre (London, UK), the Sciences Po (Paris, FR), the Graduate Institute (Geneva, CH), and the Academy for Peace and Development (Hargeysa, SO). Moreover, Balthasar has consulted with the World Bank, the United Nations, and other agencies on issues of conflict and governance in Somalia/ Somaliland, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Timor-Leste, and Nepal. He studied at the universities of Freiburg (DE) and Bordeaux (FR), and holds an MSc and PhD in international development from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

During his post-doctoral fellowship, which he commenced at the Royal Institute of International Affairs/ Chatham House (London, UK), Balthasar aims to shift his focus from analyzing national processes of state-making to understanding the role that diverse international actors can play in supporting projects of state-reconstruction.  While continuing to work on Somalia, Balthasar hopes to engage in some comparative analysis by conducting research on the Sahel as well as Kurdistan.

Selected publications:

• “Somaliland’s Best Kept Secret – Shrewd Politics and ‘War Projects’ as Means of State Making”,  Journal of East African Studies (2013), 7(2), pp. 218-38.

• With J. Grzybowski, “Between State and Non-State – Somaliland's Emerging Security Order”; In: Small Arms Survey Yearbook 2012, pp. 146-173; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

• “Tillyan Footprints Beyond Europe: War-making and State-making in the Horn of Africa – The Case of Somaliland”, St. Antony’s International Review (2010), 6(1), pp. 103-123. 

• “Anatomy of a ‘Political Chameleon’: Re-Examining Fluid Shapes and Solid Constants of Nationalism and Nation-Building”, Crisis States Research Centre Discussion Paper No. 17 (series 2); London School of Economics and Political Science: London.

Gregory P. Noone is a senior program officer for USIP’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding on an intermittent basis. 

Noone currently serves as the director of the Fairmont State University National Security and Intelligence Program and an assistant professor of political science and law. He is also an adjunct professor of law at Roger Williams University School of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and West Virginia University, where he teaches international law, genocide in the 20th century, international humanitarian law, terrorism, and U.S. military law and legal policies. He has published and presented articles on the Rwandan genocide, the International Criminal Court, and military tribunals at numerous forums and appears regularly as a commentator on international and national TV and radio.

He also received a Special Act Award for his work in Afghanistan. Noone is a member of the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG), and has also worked as a government prosecutor and a criminal defense counsel.

Noone has held several positions with the U.S. Navy, including the acting head of the International Law Branch and the Foreign Military Rights Affairs Branch in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) International and Operational Law Division at the Pentagon. Noone is a captain in the United States Naval Reserve and is the commanding officer of the Navy JAG International and Operational Law reserve unit. He is currently mobilized as the staff judge advocate for the Office for Administrative Review and Detention of Enemy Combatants (OARDEC) at the Pentagon and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Noone also served at the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS) where he trained senior military, governmental and nongovernmental civilian personnel in more than 35 countries. Most notably, he has trained members of the Iraqi National Congress, the post-genocide government in Rwanda, the post-Taliban government in Afghanistan, civil society in the Sudan, and senior members of the Russian government.

Noone is a graduate of the Canadian Forces College’s Joint Reserve Command and Staff Programme (JRCSP 12). He received a B.A. in political science from Villanova University, an M.A. in international affairs from The Catholic University of America, a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, and a Ph.D. in political Science (international relations) from West Virginia University. 

Colonel Anthony Bostick joined USIP as an Army fellow in August 2013. 

He started his career with the U.S. military nearly 20 years ago, after completing a B.S. in Biology at the University of California, Davis, and a doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Tuskegee University in Alabama.  Col. Bostick has been stationed at Fort Sam Houston, TX (OBC), Fort Benjamin Harrison, IN (OIC), Fort Sam Houston, TX (OAC), Bad Kreuznach, Germany (Squad OIC), Kaiserslautern, Germany (Deputy CDR, 64th Med Det (VS)), Macedonia/Kosovo (Task Force Staff Veterinarian), Fort Carson, CO (Branch Chief), Fort Carson, CO (interim District CDR), Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, MD (Resident/Deputy Director), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH (Director of Vet Med), Fort Hood, TX (43rd Med Det (VS) CDR), Fort Bragg, NC (USASOC Command Veterinarian) and APG 1st Area Medical Lab CDR.

Deployments include Kosovo and Macedonia with 1st ID, Iraq with the 43rd Med Det (VS) and Afghanistan with 3rd and 7th Special Forces Groups.

His research and publications focus on dermal injury from laser weaponry and the prevention of malaria and dengue in our deployed soldiers. 

Daniel Weggeland is a 2013 – 2014 Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow. His project, “The Humble Counterinsurgent: Metrics, Management and Behaviors,” will explore the metrics a third party uses to gauge its effectiveness when it intervenes in a country with weak government institutions  to support that country’s counterinsurgency efforts.  How do these metrics impact the management of the third party’s resources, as well as the host government’s behaviors in response to the intervention?

He hypothesizes that metrics create incentives for the intervening third party to assume too much de facto governance responsibility despite strategic imperatives to the contrary. He plans to write a practitioner guide to improve host country ownership of the counterinsurgency process while ensuring quality data for campaign assessments.

Weggeland previously served on the Counterinsurgency Advisory and Assistance Team in Afghanistan during which time he advised two Commanders of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Generals Petraeus and Allen, on governance and development matters. Previously, he worked in Afghanistan for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Khost and Paktika provinces and before that with the implementing partner for the USAID/Local Governance Community Development program. Prior to his work in Afghanistan, he worked for a non-governmental organization in Liberia and led a field team exploring why combatants had fought, what keep them fighting, and reasons for demobilizing. Weggeland holds an MA in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and currently works for the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

Publications:

• “Less Boom for the Buck - Projects for Counterinsurgency Effects and Transition,” Special Report for the ISAF Commander (April, 2011).
• “Civil Partnering - Enabling Afghan Civil Government Assumption of Risk and Responsibility,” Special Report for the ISAF Commander (August, 2011).

Lieutenant Colonel Dawn Hilton came to the U.S. Institute of Peace as a Jennings Randolph Army Fellow in the fall of 2013 from the Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where she worked as the Inspector General.

She most recently was responsible for the final construction phase and opening of the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility, where she served as the first facility warden. In that capacity, she was responsible for a staff of 600 soldiers and civilians which provided custody, control and comprehensive correctional rehabilitation treatment programs and administration for more than 400 military prisoners. She was also responsible to provide 400 soldiers and units to deploy worldwide and conduct military confinement or detainee operations in support of senior military commanders.

From 2008 to 2010 Dawn served as the chief of the Operations Branch for the Antiterrorism and Force Protection Division supporting the United States European Command located in Stuttgart, Germany. During this assignment, she conducted strategic and operational level joint, combined, and multinational antiterrorism planning to support the European Command plans and operations center. In addition, she participated in crisis and deliberate planning and strategic movements in support of contingency mission execution within the command while simultaneously coordinating antiterrorism operations and plans with the European Command staff, Joint Staff, Department of Defense Agencies, Department of State, and other federal agencies.

Prior to 2008, Dawn Hilton was assigned to a myriad of posts within the United States Army most notably as senior advisor to the Afghanistan Ministry of Defense in detention operations. She provided oversight of training and mentoring of the Afghanistan National Detention Facility (ANDF) Army guard force ensuring safe and humane confinement of enemy combatants in accordance with international standards as dictated in the Geneva Convention.  She was integral in the development and implementation of the program which transferred detainees from U.S. to Afghan governmental control, including the development and execution of Afghan-led legal proceedings involving the Afghan Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense and numerous nongovernmental agencies.

Dawn Hilton received a M.S. in Human Resources Management and Criminal Justice from Tarleton State University and a B.A. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Nadia Naviwala is USIP's country representative for Pakistan. Nadia manages USIP's Peace Innovations Fund for Pakistan and oversees all USIP-supported activities in country. Prior to joining USIP, Nadia studied how foreign assistance can better support civil society in Pakistan and worked with The Citizens Foundation in Karachi. She has also served as Pakistan Desk Officer at USAID and a Legislative Aide on National Security for Senator Jim Webb. She holds a Masters in Public Policy degree from Harvard Kennedy School, where she was an International and Global Affairs Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, a Public Service Fellow, and an associate with the Carr Center Program on State-Building and Human Rights in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Publications:

• How the U.S. Can Help Pakistan Help Itself on Foreign Policy's AfPak Channel
• Pakistan Needs More Than Three Cups of Tea on Foreign Policy's AfPak Channel
• Displacement and Despair, a Dangerous Combination on New York Times 'At War' blog
• Karachi's Downward Spiral on Foreign Policy's AfPak Channel
• Harnessing Local Capacity: U.S. Assistance and NGOs in Pakistan by Harvard's Carr Center

U.S. Army Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) Kevin Pies joined USIP as an Army fellow in August 2013.

Chaplain (LTC) Kevin M. Pies’ military service began in 1993 in the U.S. Army Reserves after serving in civilian parishes in Chicago and England.  He has served continuously since 1993 as a chaplain in military units from battalion to Department of the Army, with deployments to Bosnia (1997) and Iraq (2003-2004).  His focus has been on providing religious support and care to soldiers, families, and Department of the Army or host nation civilians through marriage and relationship enrichment programs, pastoral programs, and ministry services.  He is particularly interested in the area of mentoring, coaching, and training junior chaplains in their career progression.  Stemming from this interest, Chaplain Pies will analyze the formulation, development, and partnering potential of the U.S. and international chaplaincies during his year at USIP.

Chaplain Pies served as the command chaplain of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Command (2008-2010), the executive officer for the U.S. Army Chief of Chaplains (2010-2011), and the command chaplain for the U.S. Army Garrison Benelux, Belgium.  Chaplain Pies holds a bachelor of arts degree in history from Crown College, MN, a master of divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL, and a diploma from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.  He is endorsed and ordained by the Christian and Missionary Alliance

Dr. Elie Abouaoun serves currently as a Senior Program Officer (Iraq and North Africa programs) with the Center for Conflict Management at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Previously, he held the position of Executive Director at the Arab Human Rights Fund after an assignment as a Senior Program Officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace – Iraq program.

Prior to 2011, Dr. Abouaoun managed the Iraq program of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and worked as the program coordinator for Ockenden International-Iraq. He is a senior trainer and consultant with several local, regional and international organizations on topics such as human rights, program development/management, displacement and relief, capacity development, Euro Mediterranean cooperation; and is a member of the pool of trainers of the Council of Europe since 2000. Dr. Abouaoun regularly contributes to publications related to the above mentioned topics. In 2001, he was appointed a member of the Reference Group established by the Directorate of Education-Council of Europe to supervise the drafting of COMPASS, a manual for human rights education. He further supervised the adaptation and the translation of COMPASS into Arabic and its subsequent diffusion in the Arab region in 2003. He regularly writes articles for the French speaking Lebanese daily newspaper L'Orient du Jour as well other publications in the Arab region. He is a visiting lecturer at Notre Dame University-Lebanon on the subjects of human rights, civil society, advocacy and at Saint Joseph University-Lebanon on the subjects of human rights and citizenship. Dr. Abouaoun serves as a member of the Board of Directors of several organizations in the Arab region.

Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt joined the U.S. Institute of Peace as Director of the Asia-Pacific Program in August 2013.

Previously, she set up and ran the Beijing office of the International Crisis Group for five years, engaging in research, analysis and promotion of policy prescriptions on the role of China in conflict areas around the world and its relations with neighboring countries.

Kleine-Ahlbrandt worked as an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations from 2006 to 2007. Prior to that she worked for the United Nations for a decade where she focused on the African continent and served as Officer-in-Charge of the Asia-Pacific region. Previously, Kleine-Ahlbrandt was seconded by the U.S. Department of State to the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, investigated genocide and other human rights violations for the United Nations in Rwanda (1994-1995), and worked with the Legal Affairs Directorate of the Council of Europe.

Kleine-Ahlbrandt has written extensively on China’s foreign policy, Chinese views of the strategic environment, Sino-U.S. relations, Chinese assessments of the Iran nuclear issue, the Korean peninsula, maritime disputes in the East and South China Seas, China-Central Asian relations, China-Myanmar relations and China-Africa relations. Her writings have been published in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian,Le Monde, Die Zeitand the International Herald Tribune, as well as various edited volumes on Asian security. Kleine-Ahlbrandt is also the author of a book on post-genocide Rwanda.

Alan J. Kuperman is a 2013-2014 Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow. In his project, “Humanitarian Blowback? Lessons for Future Intervention,” he investigates the successes and failures of humanitarian intervention, from which he will derive recommendations for future implementation of the “Responsibility to Protect.” The project draws on his 15 years of field interviews with rebels, government officials, and interveners in the deadly conflicts of Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Darfur, Liberia, and Libya.

Kuperman is associate professor of public affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses in global policy studies, leads a Pentagon-funded project on constitutional design and conflict management in Africa, and is coordinator of the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project (www.NPPP.org). Previously, he was resident assistant professor and coordinator of the international relations program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, Italy. In 2009-2010, he was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in Washington, DC.

Prior to his academic career, Kuperman worked as legislative director for the U.S. Rep.  Charles Schumer, legislative assistant for U.S. House Speaker Thomas Foley, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. James Scheuer, and fellow at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He holds an A.B. in physical sciences from Harvard University, a master’s degree in international relations and international economics from SAIS, and a doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Kuperman  also held a USIP Jennings Randolph Peace Scholarship to support work on his dissertation from 2000-2001.

Publications:

• “Constitutional Design and Conflict Management in Africa,” Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy (October 2013).
• “A Model Humanitarian Intervention? Reassessing NATO’s Libya Campaign,” International Security 38, 1 (Summer 2013): 105-136.
• Nuclear Terrorism and Global Security: The Challenge of Phasing out Highly Enriched Uranium (Routledge, 2013).
• “Rethinking the Responsibility to Protect,” Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations 10,1 (Winter/Spring 2009), pp. 33-43.
• “The Moral Hazard of Humanitarian Intervention: Lessons from the Balkans,” International Studies Quarterly 52,1 (March 2008), pp. 49-80.
• Gambling on Humanitarian Intervention: Moral Hazard, Rebellion and Civil War (Routledge, 2006).
• The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention: Genocide in Rwanda (Brookings, 2001).