Oge Onubogu is program officer for Africa in the Middle East & Africa center at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). Her focus is on civil society development and governance in post-conflict and transitional societies, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, she oversees the design and implementation of programs in Nigeria in coordination with USIP’s community of experts.    

Prior to joining USIP in 2015, she was program manager for Southern Africa with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) where she managed political party strengthening, elections and civic engagement programs in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Angola, Madagascar and Mozambique. She also served with NDI in Nigeria, where she worked with civil society and government officials to support legislative strengthening and citizen participation activities.

Ms. Onubogu has designed and implemented civil society development programs in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Cameroon with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In this position, she also managed a portfolio of over 40 grants to national and international non-governmental organizations working to strengthen governance through human rights, conflict resolution, women’s political participation and civic engagement programs. She has consulted with the World Bank, observed elections with the Carter Center and coordinated refugee resettlement and youth education programs with the International Rescue Committee. She holds a Master's degree in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University and Bachelor’s degree in International and Area Studies from the University of Oklahoma.

James Cohen is a program officer with USIP’s Governance Law and Society Center. His work focuses on border security in North Africa. He previously worked at Transparency International UK’s defense and security program, developing and delivering training for government and civil society, and researching corruption risk in peacebuilding operations and police. Prior to this James worked at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces’ International Security Sector Advisory Team. There he specialized in knowledge management, as well as providing strategic and technical support to security sector reform programs in South Sudan and Albania. James has also provided consulting to the U.N. Officer of Drugs and Crime, the Global Organisation for Parliamentarians Against Corruption and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies.

Originally from Canada, James holds a Master of International Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, and a Bachelor of Social Science, honors political science, from the University of Ottawa.

Publications:

• “Oversight is the Continuation of Democracy by Other Means” (Global Organisation for Parliamentarians Against Corruption, 2015) – with Chris Mayer and Jean-Pierre Chabot.
• “Corruption & Peacekeeping: Strengthening peacekeeping and the United Nations”, (Transparency International UK, 2013) – with Mark Pyman, Sir Stewart Eldon, Nick Seymour, Hiruye Gossaye, and Ben Webster.
• “Anti-Corruption Training Course in Kabul for Afghan MoD and MoI Senior Officer: A review of participant’s opinions 18 months later” (Transparency International UK, 2013) – with Dr. Mohammad Isaqzadeh and Alan Waldron.
• “Training the Military and Defence and Security Officials in Understanding and Preventing Corruption: Evaluating the impact: Does it change behaviour?” (Transparency International UK, 2013) – with Mark Pyman and Alan Waldron.
• “Arresting Corruption in the Police: The global experience of police corruption reform efforts” (Transparency International UK, 2012) – with Mark Pyman, Matt Boardman, Ben Webster, and Nick Seymour.

Ms. Priscilla Clapp is currently a senior advisor to the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Asia Society. She is a retired Minister-Counselor in the U.S. Foreign Service.

During her 30-year career with the U.S. Government, Ms. Clapp served as chief of mission and permanent charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Burma (1999-2002), deputy chief of mission in the U.S. Embassy in South Africa (1993-96), principal deputy assistant aecretary of state for Refugee Programs (1989-1993), deputy political counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow (1986-88), and chief of political-military affairs in the U.S. Embassy in Japan (1981-85).  She also worked on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, in the East Asian, Political Military and International Organizations bureaus, and with the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

Prior to government service, Ms. Clapp spent ten years in foreign policy and arms control research, with the MIT Center for International Studies and as a Research Associate at the Brookings Institution.  She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Ms. Clapp’s books include: with Morton Halperin, "Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy" (Brookings, 2006), with I.M. Destler et al., "Managing an Alliance: the Politics of U.S.-Japanese Relations" (Brookings, 1976), with Morton Halperin, "U.S.-Japanese Relations in the 1970's" (Harvard, 1974).  She is a frequent media commentator and the author of numerous publications on Burma and U.S. Burma policy with USIP, the Brookings Institution, the East-West Center, Australia National University, the Asia Society, the National Bureau of Asian Research, Singapore’s ISEAS and others. 

Silvio W. Deng is the U.S. Institute of Peace’s current South Sudanese youth leader. Before joining USIP, Deng worked for the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Malakal as the research and advocacy officer.  In this role, he conducted research in collaboration with Cordaid, a Dutch NGO, on oil production in South Sudan. Deng’s most recent study is a baseline assessment of the impact of oil production on communities in Upper Nile and Unity States.

Deng is currently the coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission in Upper Nile State. As coordinator, he prepares and mobilizes communities for peaceful coexistence through the formation of Justice and Peace Committees in different parts of Upper Nile State, which are tasked to foster a culture of peace and non-violence.

Deng has held a number of other leadership positions including chairman of South Sudanese Students Association at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi.

His research interests are in the fields of peacebuilding, conflict transformation and extractives in South Sudan. While at USIP he aims to explore the root causes of ethnic conflict in South Sudan, with specific attention to Upper Nile State.

Deng holds a B.A in Political Science from Catholic University of Eastern Africa-Nairobi and a Diploma in Philosophy from National Major Seminary in Khartoum Sudan.

Muhammad Fraser-Rahim is a program officer for Africa programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Mr. Fraser-Rahim's areas of expertise include security sector reform, countering violent extremism (CVE) and community oriented policing in Africa. Prior to joining USIP, Mr. Fraser-Rahim worked for the United States Government for more than a decade providing strategic advice and executive branch analytical support on CVE to the White House and the National Security Council. Mr. Fraser-Rahim has conducted original research in more than 40 countries on the African continent, and has worked as a conflict mediator, ESL instructor and adjunct professor on topics related to Africa, CVE and international relations. He is a Ph.D. candidate at Howard University in African Studies with a focus on Islamic Thought, Spirituality and Modernity, and holds a master’s degree from Howard University in History, and a bachelor’s degree in History from the College of Charleston, Charleston, SC.

An active duty Marine with over 21 years of service, Lieutenant Colonel Medina arrived at USIP in the summer of 2015 following a successful 24 months Command Tour of Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 16.  He is an aviation logistics expert who has served throughout the Eastern and Western Pacific theaters and the Middle East during peaceful and combat operations. LtCol Medina has extensive experience with joint strategic and operational planning, interagency collaboration, fiscal and resource management, tactical and strategic logistics and distribution management.  LtCol Medina is a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Sciences, Professional Pilot Track.  He holds multiple private and commercial pilot certificate ratings.  Following this fellowship, LtCol Medina will join Headquarters, Marine Corps in Washington, D.C.

Katherine Wood is grants advisor in the Center for Applied Research on Conflict. She joined USIP with more than 25 years of experience in public diplomacy, higher education and the arts. Her areas of expertise are international cultural policy, intercultural and interfaith relations and the roles of the arts, media, education, religion and civil society in conflict and peace. 

Ms. Wood was chief of the exchanges section at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin during the immediate post-Cold War period, and subsequently served as senior program officer in the U.S. Information Agency’s Office of Citizen Exchanges, where she managed a large NGO grants program to promote democratic governance, economic reform, rule of law and independent media in Russia, the Caucasus region and Central Asia.  Later she was director of international outreach at National Defense University, with responsibility for new exchange initiatives and chief of the Afghanistan service at the Voice of America, where her innovative programming was recognized with an award from the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.  

Ms. Wood served as spokeswoman on the role of the arts and culture in public life and international affairs as deputy and acting director of communications at the National Endowment for the Arts and director of external relations for the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. She also held management positions in the arts and cultural exchange at the Smithsonian Institution and Georgetown University, and directed international and interfaith programs at Virginia Theological Seminary. She is a member of the Public Diplomacy Council and serves on the boards of the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women and Religions for Peace USA.  She has master’s degrees from the Boston University School for the Arts and Harvard Divinity School.

Khadija Isse is a Mandela Washington Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Khadija has over 11 years experience in various fields of the community development sector and peacebuilding in particular. Currently, she is the head of the Leadership and Public Awareness department for the Mogadishu City Volunteers, where she focuses on initiating, designing and implementing peacebuilding activities for the capital city and trains the young people on healing and leadership programs. She is the founder of this volunteer organization which is a movement of united youth groups whose goal is to make Mogadishu a better and safer place through volunteering in various areas. She took trauma healing and social reconciliation courses recognizing the huge challenges to her community and the need for practitioners to aid in healing people's trauma.

In the past, Khadija worked with USAID’s Transitional Initiatives for Stabilization (TIS) where she was the officer responsible for the trauma healing and social reconciliation, civic engagement, sports for peace, gender mainstreaming and arts and culture programs.

Khadija, who is a YALI member, is doing her professional development experience at USIP and is interested in learning more about how USIP’s peacebuilding and community engagement programs work.

She holds a postgraduate certificate in Leadership and Peacebuilding from Eastern Mennonite University. Upon completion of her time at USIP, she plans to return home and continue her work in peacebuilding and leadership with a focus on community healing and social reconciliation programs.

Laila Noureldin is a senior program manager for the Middle East and North Africa Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Prior to joining USIP, she served as senior consultant for several international and local organizations pertaining to Iraq focused programming. The majority of the consultancies she performed encompassed programmatic and financial management, strategic design, policy and advocacy, and monitoring and evaluation on Iraq. 

She was also a long-term advisor for the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD) in Amman, Jordan. Until mid-2009, Laila headed the Oxfam GB Iraq program as the country representative, which was managed from Amman, Jordan. During the same period, she served as the chairwoman of the NGO Coordination Committee (NCCI) for Iraq’s Executive Board with policy and decision making leverage. Her main areas of expertise are in the humanitarian and development fields, including: programming and strengthening partnerships and capacities of civil society organizations, in which she has over 10 years’ experience. Her Master’s research examined the prospects of compatibility between theory and reality relative to CSOs’ capacity to promote democracy in Iraq. 

Kathleen Turner is a public affairs officer in the U.S. Army with more than 20 years of service.  She is currently serving as a U.S. Army War College fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace.  She previously served as the public affairs advisor to the 38^th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General (Ret.) Ray Odierno, where she developed and managed his communications with internal and external media for more than three years. 

Kathleen has strategic and operational experience serving in a variety of positions in the United States and overseas.  Over the last twelve years she has worked in the public affairs career field conducting media operations; community relations; communications planning; and advising senior leaders on public affairs strategy.  Prior to public affairs, Kathleen served in the Military Police Corps working at the tactical level.

Kathleen is a graduate of Western New England College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, a Master's of Science Administration degree from Central Michigan University and a Master's of Military Arts and Sciences from the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Illana Lancaster is a senior program officer in the USIP Academy where she specializes in curriculum and training design and delivery, trainer development and university partnerships. For the past few years, Illana has been one of the Academy’s most prolific trainers of African peacekeepers, having led more than 30 trainings.

Illana joined USIP in 2015. Previously, she was an assistant professor in the International Training and Education Program (ITEP) in the School for Education, Teaching and Health (SETH) at American University. Illana has had a long-standing focus on Africa, including as a critical qualitative researcher interested in issues of equity, access and gender with a regional focus on southern Africa and a contextual focus on urban issues. She has employed the analytical lens of social-spatiality and intersectionality (race, class and gender) in her research, and integrated theories, pedagogies and methodologies from a variety of disciplines within the social sciences and humanities including urban studies, critical geography, critical race theory and legal studies.

Illana is a returned Peace Corps volunteer. She served as a secondary education volunteer in Serowe, Botswana. 

She holds a B.A. in African and African American studies and English literature from the University of Virginia, a M.Ed. in secondary education from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in international education policy from the University of Maryland at College Park. 

Publications:

• Lancaster, I., and Sanyal, A. (2012). “Teaching ‘Valores’ in Cuba: A Conversation among Teacher Educators.” In S. Steinberg and  K. Tobin (eds.), Logics of Socialist Education: Engaging with Crisis, Insecurity andUncertainty. New York: Springer.
• Lancaster, I. (2011). “Modalities of Mobility: Johannesburg Learners’ Daily Negotiations of the Uneven Terrain of the City.” South African Review of Education, 16 (3).

Sofía Sebastián is a Fritz Thyssen TAPIR visiting fellow recently based at the Stimson Center’s Future of Peace Operations Program and SIPRI North America in Washington D.C. Since 2006 she has been engaged in policy-based analysis as a result of her association with Madrid-based institute FRIDE. She has also held different positions at various universities and research institutes such as the London School of Economics, Columbia University and the Center on International Cooperation in New York, and has worked as a Political Adviser for the Spanish Embassy to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to these experiences, she worked for the World Bank in Washington D.C.

Sofía’s research focuses on U.N. peace operations; peacebuilding and state-building; civilian protection; conflict management; constitution-making; EU foreign policy; the Western Balkans; Mali and the Sahel. She holds a PhD in government from the London School of Economics (LSE). Prior to her PhD, she earned an MSc in Foreign Service at Georgetown University with a Fulbright Fellowship and received her B.A. in Political Science and International Relations at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Derek Brown is a Jennings Randolph senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace where he is studying the institutional support structures for national dialogue processes. He is presently on leave from the Peace Appeal Foundation, where he has served as executive director and secretary for the last decade. During his tenure at the Peace Appeal Foundation his work has focused on supporting multi-stakeholder institutions and authentic national dialogue processes in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Lebanon and Myanmar.   Additionally he has contributed to the effort to improve the legal and regulatory enabling environment in the United States affecting peacebuilding organizations’ work in global conflicts. 

Previously Brown served as associate chair/chief operating officer of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, with which he maintains an ongoing affiliation as a senior adviser. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Charity and Security Network, on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Building Peace: A Forum for Peace and Security in the 21rst Century, as well as the boards of several other civil society organizations. 

He holds an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in History from Yale University. In 2007, he was an associate fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Program in Ethnic Conflict. He has written a number of articles on dialogue and peace processes for print and online publications including the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Insight on Conflict, and U.S. newspapers. He lives with his wife, Deborah Hellman, a professor of law, and two daughters in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Salih Booker is the vice president for external relations at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Previously, he was a special advisor to the executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa. Earlier, Mr. Booker directed two international human rights organizations – the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions and the Washington-based Global Rights and was the founding Director of Africa Action. He was previously a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and served as a Ford Foundation program officer in Eastern and Southern Africa. He was also an Associate Director of Catholic Relief Services in Southern Africa. He earlier served on two occasions as a Professional Staff member for the U.S. Congress House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs. Mr. Booker is an international affairs professional whose specialties include U.S. foreign policy, African affairs and international human rights. Previously he appeared frequently in U.S. and international media. He has lived in Ghana, Kenya, France, Colombia, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Switzerland, Peru and Ethiopia and has traveled for work to over 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. He was educated at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Ghana and Wesleyan University.

Vanessa Johanson is USIP’s country director for Myanmar, based in Yangon. Vanessa has worked since 1996 in Asia and the Middle East on peacebuilding, peace processes, governance and media development. She has held director-level positions with international organizations including Search for Common Ground, The Asia Foundation, BBC Media Action and Internews. She has carried out training and analysis on fragile states, conflict, mediation and dialogue, and women, peace and security for the Australian government, U.N. agencies and INGOs. Immediately prior to joining USIP she worked as senior advisor on Peacebuilding and Peace Processes in Myanmar with USAID/OTI through DAI.

Vanessa speaks Bahasa Indonesian fluently, as well as conversational Myanmar, and has lived and worked in Myanmar, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Sweden and Thailand, as well as carrying out numerous short-term assignments elsewhere. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and Literature (Latrobe), a Graduate Diploma in Journalism (RMIT) and a Masters in Participatory Development (ANU).

Pamina Firchow is a Jennings Randolph senior fellow. During her fellowship time at USIP, she will be working on a monograph on community perceptions of reconciliation and their experiences with transitional justice and peacebuilding interventions after mass violence. Dr. Firchow is on leave from the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University where she is an assistant professor. Her research focuses primarily on local experiences of peacebuilding and human rights interventions in conflict affected societies. She is particularly interested in the ways in which communities are considered in the design, monitoring and evaluation of peacebuilding and transitional justice programming of international actors. Her research has been published in the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, Human Rights Review, the Journal of Human Rights Practice, Politics, Latin American Perspectives and the Journal of Information Technology for Development, among others. She is also the co-editor of Practical Approaches to Peacebuilding: Putting Theory to Work (Lynne Rienner 2016).

Firchow earned her PhD from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. She also holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and an MA from the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she was a Rotary Peace Scholar. Firchow has conducted extensive field research in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa and serves as a consultant to various international peacebuilding organizations. She has been working in the peacebuilding sector as a scholar-practitioner for non-governmental organizations and universities since 1999.

Christiane Farqui is a senior knowledge management officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Christiane leads USIP’s Knowledge Management efforts to help the Institute become a true learning organization. As a member of the Planning, Learning and Evaluation team, she is currently working to improve USIP’s ability to gather, manage, share and leverage the knowledge that the Institute needs to design and implement more effective programs. Christiane joined USIP from the World Bank Group, where she worked as a knowledge management specialist for the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG). In that capacity, she designed, developed and delivered knowledge management products and learning materials to help World Bank staff and external clients better understand, share and use the findings from IEG evaluations. Before IEG, Christiane was a strategic communications specialist with the World Bank’s Leadership, Learning and Innovation Vice Presidency.  Prior to joining the World Bank, Christiane worked as a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton’s Strategy and Change team.  Her portfolio included projects that focused on organizational development, change management, strategic communications, leadership development and strategic planning for major U.S. federal government agencies. Christiane has a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University and an M.A. in Social-Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. She is fluent in Portuguese and English and also speaks Spanish and French.

Manal Taha is the Jennings Randolph senior fellow for North Africa. Manal will be conducting research to explore the local factors that facilitate or otherwise limit recruitment or radicalization of youth into violent extremism associations in Libya.

Manal is an anthropologist and conflict analyst expert with a wide range of research and field experiences in the areas of post-war reconciliation and conflict resolution in Libya, South Sudan and Sudan. She has experience working for the Office of Transition Initiative OTI/USAID in Libya, she has worked for Chemonics as a regional program manager (RPM) for Eastern Libya on an OTI/USAID program focusing on program development, implementation and developing program strategies.

Manal has conducted several research projects related to causes of conflict in Sudan including: qualitative research on land tenure systems and water rights in Nuba Mountains in Sudan for the Martin Luther University in Germany. In addition to the research projects, Manal served as the lead researcher for the National Center for Research in Khartoum, Sudan, working on various programs in cultural anthropology. She holds an M.A in Anthropology from the University of Khartoum and an M.A in Conflict Transformation from the School for International Training in Vermont. Manal is fluent in Arabic and English.

Jennifer Staats is the director for China Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she focuses on China’s role with regard to peace and conflict dynamics in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Dr. Staats joins USIP from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where she concentrated on policy issues related to Asian security, as well as cybersecurity, from 2009-2016. In the Strategy Office, she led the teams that coordinated the Department of Defense’s implementation of the U.S. Rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, developed long-term strategy for the Department and assessed future security trends, with a particular focus on Asia. Before that, she managed the Asian and Pacific Security Affairs portfolio in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs. Most recently, she served as director for Cybersecurity and National Cyber Partnerships, where she worked closely with the White House, other U.S. government agencies and private sector companies to develop innovative policy solutions to improve the nation’s cybersecurity. Staats received several awards for her work at DoD, including the Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service.

Before entering government service, Staats was a fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and a research assistant with the Preventive Defense Project chaired by Ashton B. Carter and William J. Perry. She also spent time as an economic analyst at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and as a researcher at Tsinghua University’s Institute of International Studies.

Staats received her PhD from Harvard University, her MPA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and her BA from the University of the South (Sewanee). Named a Fulbright Scholar, NSEP Boren Fellow, Javits Fellow and NCAA Postgraduate Scholar, Staats speaks Mandarin Chinese and German.  She is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Carla Koppell is the vice president for the center for Applied Conflict Transformation at the United States Institute of Peace. She previously was chief strategy officer for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) where she focused on increasing Agency-wide transparency, accountability, collaboration and communications. Prior to serving as CSO, Koppell served as USAID’s first senior coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and as a senior advisor to the USAID Administrator.

Koppell brings to the position twenty-five years of experience working in a wide range of sectors for public, private and non-governmental organizations internationally. Prior to joining USAID, Koppell directed The Institute for Inclusive Security and the Washington, D.C. office of Hunt Alternatives Fund. She also was a senior advisor and, prior to that, interim director of the Conflict Prevention Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Earlier in her career, she worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Koppell received her M.A. in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her B.S. from Cornell University.