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Dr. Elie Abouaoun

Dr. Elie Abouaoun is the director of Middle East and North Africa programs at the U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP), based in USIP's regional hub in Tunis, Tunisia. He joined USIP after serving as the executive director of the Arab Human Rights Fund. Prior to this, he was the acting country director and program manager of the Danish Refugee Council in Iraq. Elie also spent time working as the program coordinator for Ockenden International–Iraq and as the director of external relations for the Lebanese NGO Arcenciel. He has served as a senior trainer and consultant for various international organizations since 1996, including the Council of Europe. In 2001, he was appointed to supervise the drafting of COMPASS, a manual for human rights education. He later supervised the manual's adaptation and translation into Arabic. Elie is a visiting lecturer at Notre Dame University-Lebanon and Saint Joseph University-Lebanon on the subjects of human rights, civil society, advocacy, and citizenship. He regularly contributes to publications throughout the MENA region and the United States, while serving on the board of directors for several regional organizations. Elie holds a master’s in business administration and management and is a doctor of dental surgery.

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Aboubacrine Ahmed Ag

Aboubacrine Ahmed Ag is a seasoned development specialist who specializes in design and monitoring, accountability, evaluation, and learning systems in both the public and private sectors. He regularly advises senior management and country teams on corporate strategy, quality assurance, and performance management. From 2002 to 2010, he worked for CARE International in Mali, Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Liberia playing a critical role in evaluation capacity building, country and sectoral programs’ quality, and impact measurement. At CARE, he ensured successfully the M&E for projects funded by USAID, EU, Norway, DFID, CIDA, World Bank, UNICEF, and various U.S. foundations. In July 2010, he joined the IsDB Group in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he held several leadership positions in streamlining development effectiveness policies and guidelines and also in coaching and mentoring. He contributed to the implementation and evaluation of multi-billion-dollar projects, programs, sector and country strategies in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In 2019, he joined IRUSA where he is leading the upgrading of programs’ quality and standards systems. Aboubacrine has an associate’s degree in mathematics, a bachelor’s degree in statistics and a master’s degree in decision making. He is an active member of IDEAS, AfrEA, AEA, MaliWatch, and MSAS and is co-founder of APEM.
 

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Dr. Martina Brämswig / Timmermann

Dr. Martina Brämswig / Timmermann is a board member of TIMA GmbH, a vanguard consultancy in Germany. She is responsible for socioeconomic strategy and project development and is international corporate-government liaison with a focus on EU, North America, and Asia. She serves as EU-Councillor on ERASMUS+ projects and is a non-resident fellow at AICGS–Johns Hopkins University; member of the Advisory Council of the Clausewitz Society; board member of the CDU Economic Council Osnabrueck; member of the Advisory Council of the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany; and member of the German Association Asia-Pacific, IISS, and ZONTA. Before joining TIMA in 2008, Martina served as director of studies on human rights and ethics in the Peace and Governance Program at United Nations University HQ in Tokyo and UNU advisor at UNU-EHS (Environment and Human Security) in Bonn. Prior to that, Martina headed a DFG research project at the Institute of Asian Affairs in Hamburg, exploring regional identity-building in Asia with field trips to Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Her doctoral degree is from Ruhr-University Bochum for the study "The Power of Collective Thought Patterns: Values, Change, and Political Culture in Japan and the United States of America," conducted at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and Harvard University’s U.S.-Japan Program and the Reischauer Institute.
 

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David Callaway

Dr. David Callaway is a Navy veteran who served with the United States Marine Corps in Iraq, Burma, and El Salvador. He is the father of Elizabeth and Lilianna, two princess warriors, and husband of Dr. Jennifer Callaway. He has an unrelenting drive to improve his community and a “healthy distaste for the status quo.” Dave is a graduate of Georgetown School of Medicine and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he was a Zuckerman Fellow. He currently works as a professor of emergency medicine at Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina where he is chief of disaster medicine and is a member of the senior executive team for veterans and military affairs. Dave subscribes to the idea that crisis offers opportunity. As an Eisenhower Fellow in 2014, he investigated the health and security impacts of Syrian refugees on Jordanian civil society. Currently, he is working to mobilize U.S. combat veterans to engage in community service projects focused on social justice. Dave’s extensive work in health and crisis recently led to his appointment as chief medical officer for Team Rubicon and as a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
 

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John Carlson

John Carlson is a government affairs and strategy professional with extensive experience in global biopharmaceutical companies. John currently oversees AbbVie’s government affairs activities in Japan tasked with the responsibility of working with the government to develop new approaches to public policy that can ensure the next generation of medicines reach those who need them most, patients. Before joining AbbVie, John worked in increasing roles of responsibility for the Japan affiliate of Merck KGaA, spending time in corporate strategy, marketing, and government affairs. Having studied abroad at a young age, John continues to support cultural, educational, and economic exchange between the U.S. and Japan. He currently serves as chair of the Healthcare Committee and co-chair of the Young Professionals Forum at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan while also serving on the Fremont-Yahaba Friendship City Program’s Board of Directors. John received his M.S. in regulatory science, B.S. in biochemistry, and B.A. in East Asian languages and cultures (focus on Japan and Korea) from the University of Southern California.
 

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Jonathan Carter

Jonathan Carter is a policy professional with a focus in national security. Jon has drafted legislation at the local level tackling commercial gentrification. He has also served on multiple committees in the House of Representatives. Jon has been on a pair of combat deployments to Afghanistan: First, during the year Osama Bin Laden was killed, and second, alongside the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force when he served in the U.S. Army holding a Top Secret-SCI security clearance. Jon is a dual citizen of the U.K. and the United States, spending his childhood in Europe before ultimately landing in Texas after his military service. Jon was a vocal community organizer while living in Texas and is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin. He is currently working on his law degree at The George Washington University Law School. He resides in downtown Washington, D.C. with his girlfriend and their Chihuahua. In his spare time, Jon likes to keep fit playing sports, and he enjoys watching movies and playing music.
 

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Polly Cegielski

Polly Cegielski was not looking for a career in the security sector when she started studying anthropology. But college opened her eyes and mind to cultures, gender, and difference, perspectives that would probably have been missed if she had gone a traditional security studies route. However, her minor in Middle Eastern Studies helped place her in Afghanistan as a civilian social scientist, media analyst, and gender coordinator, supporting NATO forces over five tours. The experience being "boots on the ground" in Afghanistan, plus eight months in Tajikistan as a Boren Fellow, emphasized the impacts that security, gender, and power have on one another, which is the basis for her Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts. Polly is currently writing her dissertation while working as a senior principal analyst in Tampa and feels honored to be selected to the AILA fellowship. She hopes that the experience, as the description states, will make her a more “effective and ethical changemaker” and support her goal to bring positive changes in the realm of human security and gender.
 

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Florence Dunkel

Florence Dunkel is a tenured entomology professor at Montana State University (MSU). Since 1981 she has worked with subsistence farmers in China, Morocco, Rwanda, and Mali. Since 1989 when she took the headship at MSU, she has collaborated with the Apsaalooke and Northern Cheyenne in Montana and developed a national Mali extern program. Her laboratory, field, and community research is based on active listening and decolonizing methodologies as well as the chemistry of natural products, more recently the nutrients available in insects as food and feed. With over 60 peer-refereed publications, 5 books and monographs, and a number of book chapters, writing is her main medium of change, although she has also done a TEDx talk, several speaking tours, and taught in the classroom on insects and human societies; health, poverty, and agriculture; and holistic approaches to current food and health system challenges. Her philosophy is detailed in Incorporating Cultures' Role in the Food and Agricultural Sciences. Thanks to growing support for the 32-year-old annual student Bug Buffet, MSU put insects on the menu this summer with eight appetizers, entrees, and desserts. Florence's people are German-Swiss farmers on her mother's side and Sicilian herders and sulphur miners on her father's side, where they have lived in the same village in the hills near Agrigento for over 400 years.
 

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Emily Follett

Emily Follett joined Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2003 following two years as a commercial lawyer in Melbourne, Australia. She currently serves as counsellor for trade at the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C., where she covers U.S. trade policy, including with respect to the World Trade Organization, Europe, Japan, North America, and Australia. For several years prior, Emily was a trade negotiator for Australia’s free trade agreements with Japan, China, Korea, and Malaysia. Emily’s first posting was to Laos (2005-09) and she accompanied her husband on his posting to the Solomon Islands (2016-18), where Emily served as chair of the board of the international school. Emily holds a master of laws degree from the Australian National University and law and commerce degrees from the University of Melbourne.
 

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Stephen Frano

Stephen Frano is the Public Private Partnership Program manager within the Pacific Outreach Directorate at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. He helps to identify and construct strategic engagements for the Command with public, private, and civil sector organizations to address complex community stability and resiliency issues across the Indo-Asia Pacific region. Stephen has led the development of such efforts as promoting greater education and awareness of climate change and national security, and improving energy security in Southeast Asia’s communities. Stephen’s previous position with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Coastal Management was focused on aiding the State of Hawaii and U.S. Pacific Island Territories around climate adaptation, coastal community development, and hazard preparedness. Stephen obtained his bachelor’s degree in integrated science and technology from James Madison University and his master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University.
 

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Lin Gao

Lin Gao joined The Rockefeller Foundation in 2019. As research specialist, her primary role is to review and analyze innovation at the nexus of the foundation’s focus areas. Prior to joining the Foundation, Lin worked at the United Nations’ headquarters in New York as a researcher and interlocutor on economic, social, and environmental development agendas as well as the implementation and measurement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. As a Chinese native, she worked at Mundipharma’s Beijing office as government affairs and public relations manager from 2011 to 2014. Lin is also an experienced art law/art provenance researcher, specializing in the application of data and technological tools to prevent the illicit import, export, and transfer of ownership of cultural property. Lin holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and an M.A. in art business. She speaks Mandarin, Japanese, and Arabic. She was the Gold Winner of the President’s Volunteer Service Award issued by the White House (2015) and the Grand Winner of the Martin Luther King Jr. Award issued by the U.S. Embassy in Japan (2008). Lin recently joined the Board of Advisors at the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations.
 

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Lauren Hershey

Lauren Hershey serves as a stabilization advisor with the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the Department of State. In this role, she applies conflict prevention and stabilization principles in diplomatic and military strategic planning efforts and provides nuanced program design and management in priority conflict environments throughout Europe. Since 2016, Lauren’s work has primarily focused on the Western Balkans region and Ukraine. In Fall 2017, she deployed as a conflict advisor to the Embassy of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina to provide analytic and programmatic support to mitigate inter-ethnic and inter-religious tensions. In Fall 2018, she embedded with U.S. European Command to provide civilian conflict prevention and stabilization expertise to the command's development and execution of strategies, operations, plans, and exercises. Lauren graduated with an M.A. in international security from the University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of International Studies in 2016, where she concentrated in intelligence analysis and conflict resolution. She is deeply committed to enhancing synergies between global partners to reduce violence and advance human security in conflict and post-conflict environments. This can be achieved through courageous and caring leadership, tailored contextual program and engagement design, and integrating evidence-based conflict analysis into policies and strategies.
 

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Koshi Igari

Koshi Igari is the senior Japan campaign manager at Bell, responsible for business development and sales of Bell's military vertical lift aircraft for the Japanese market. Prior to joining Bell, he worked at two major trading companies in Japan, both specializing in defense businesses, where he was engaged in marketing and sales of various defense avionics, aircraft and shipboard systems. His area of expertise is in account development, strategic project planning and scheduling, international trading transactions, and legal document review. Koshi has over 20 years of marketing and sales experience in defense equipment, engaging with both the Japan Ministry of Defense and leading Japanese defense industries. Koshi received his B.S. in social science from Troy State University (currently Troy University) in Alabama, with a concentration in international relations/studies.
 

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Dr. Ticora V. Jones

Dr. Ticora V. Jones is the director for the Center for Development Research in the U.S. Global Development Lab of USAID, an organization designed to focus on generating and using research for development. She has been with USAID for more than 10 years, working to elevate science, technology, and innovation for global development. In this role she serves as architect, leader, and manager of multiple high-functioning project and program teams designed to bring together regional and global innovation ecosystems to advance global problem solving in health, agriculture, and energy with an emphasis on youth engagement and country self-reliance. Ticora is a creative problem solver who leverages physical science and management expertise and diverse skills in strategy development, legislative affairs, budget formulation, and operations specific to the integration of science, technology, innovation, and partnership for enhanced social value. Prior to joining USAID, Ticora served as the 2008-09 Materials Societies Congressional Fellow for Senator Russell D. Feingold (D-WI) where she worked on energy and environment issues.
 

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Emma Laury

Emma Laury is a senior international labor advisor for trade policy at the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL). Her primary area of expertise is in international labor and worker rights issues, focusing on ensuring that trade preference beneficiary countries comply with U.S. trade laws to afford internationally recognized worker rights to workers in their countries. Currently, Emma represents USDOL on the Generalized System of Preferences subcommittee of the USG’s trade policy staff committee. Previously, she also represented USDOL in the negotiation of free trade agreements, including the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, and managed the African Growth and Opportunities Act program for the USDOL. Emma began her career USDOL in 2010 as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. She received her juris doctor, cum laude, from the Washington College of Law in 2010 and graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 2007 from the University of California—San Diego. Emma was raised in California and is a dual citizen of the US and Finland. She and her spouse, Severin Skolrud, have an almost two-year-old son.
 

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Angela Lewis

Angela Lewis is the manager of the global intelligence and threat analysis team at The Walt Disney Company, which is tasked with strategic forecasting—understanding how geopolitical events around the world could impact The Walt Disney Company’s various lines of business. This includes ABC News reporting from conflict zones, assessing potential locations for future theme parks and film productions, identifying risks to Disney Cruise Line, ensuring the security of Adventures by Disney and National Geographic land tours, and informing ESPN’s coverage of worldwide sporting events. Prior to joining the private sector, Angela served as a senior counterterrorism targeting officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, including serving two tours abroad in Central Europe and in the Middle East. She earned her master’s degree in international relations with a focus in foreign policy from American University and graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelor’s degrees in international affairs and political science. She is currently a Ph.D. student at Pepperdine University.
 

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Jonathan McAlvany

Jonathan McAlvany is an analytical and entrepreneurial cross-cultural leader with over 15 years of high-impact experience in both nonprofit and for-profit sectors, with expertise in community development, child and education development, consulting for funding and project expansion, and overseas development in India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Europe. Jonathan has traveled to 36 countries, offering in-depth insights into cross-cultural conflict resolution, leadership and team building, strategic development, and logistical planning. He thrives in fast-paced, pressurized environments, and as a native English speaker, speaks with professional business fluency in Bahasa Indonesian. Jonathan received his undergraduate degree in international business with a minor in cultural anthropology from Vanguard University of Southern California (2005), where he was awarded the Business Student of the Year award. He recently earned his MBA (2020) with distinction through the University of the People. He will continue his education through the Monarch Business School Switzerland in a dual Ph.D./DBA program this fall. McAlvany is married to the woman of his dreams and has five amazing children. His favorite pastimes include changing diapers, flying small aircraft, skydiving, coaching Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and pushing for new ocean depths as an advanced freediver!
 

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Wade Millen

Wade Millen oversees a global research team (Tokyo, Seattle, London, Amsterdam) responsible for underwriting private market investments. He works directly with some of the largest sovereign wealth funds and other institutional pools of capital around the world to develop investment strategy and to ultimately help achieve financial security for asset owners. The more significant areas of advancement he is focused on include ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) factors, investment objectives tied to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”), and broader impact-oriented mandates. Government responses to climate change, the rise of autocratic versus liberal democratic regimes, and increased measurement of return to “stakeholders” versus shareholders are all considerations impacting the cost and allocation of capital. Other related areas of interest include how perceptions of national security versus fiduciary duty and principles of ‘collectivism’ versus ‘individualism’ will influence the path of globalization and resulting capital flows. The intersection of these factors as well as other trends have enormous potential to continue to shape secular changes in the evaluation of risk and global opportunities amongst fiduciaries.
 

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Atul Narayan

Atul Narayan is currently a senior investor at Bridgewater Associates, co-heading the firm’s Equities and Commodities teams. His main focus is leading research to understand how global markets and economies work. For example, he has worked on the expected long-term shifts in supply and demand for oil and coal as the world converts to a lower-carbon economy, how the trade war between the U.S. and China became a technology war and mapping the vulnerabilities of each side to disruptions in tech supply, and why corporate profit margins have become so high in recent decades (while wages have been depressed). His views on such topics and the implications for global economies frequently feature in the firm’s highly regarded daily research pieces, Bridgewater Daily Observations, read by the world’s top economic policy makers and largest pools of capital. He finds it deeply meaningful to have his work contribute to the transformation of Bridgewater’s approach as well as to the global policy conversation on these issues.
 

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Paul Ojajuni

Paul Ojajuni is co-founder and director of research and development at HACEY Health Initiative; a development organisation with a vision to improve the health and productivity of women and girls across Africa through research, advocacy, capacity development and cross-sectoral partnership. He currently leads the implementation of “Project Agbebi” - a maternal health project aimed at reducing pregnancy-related deaths in rural communities in South West Nigeria through strengthening of referral systems between traditional birth attendants and existing primary health care centres, provision of safe birthing kits, and capacity development for traditional birth attendants. Prior to this, he led the programme design and management of one of the largest private sector-driven malaria elimination intervention in Nigeria - “Malaria to Zero”. Paul is an Obama Foundation Leader (Africa), holds a M.P.H. (International) from the University of Leeds, UK and is a certified project manager.
 

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Dr. Andrew Schroeder

Dr. Andrew Schroeder is the vice president of research and analysis for Direct Relief and the co-founder of WeRobotics. Direct Relief is a humanitarian medical aid NGO based in Santa Barbara, California, with partnerships in 90 countries and all U.S. states and territories. WeRobotics is a global non-profit headquartered in Switzerland that builds local capacity in the use of robotics for social good. Andrew received his Ph.D. in social and cultural analysis from New York University and his master’s in public policy from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He lives currently in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
 

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Karla Streegan Cruz

Karla Streegan Cruz is a public policy strategist who works with multi-sectoral stakeholders to cohesively integrate new technologies for service delivery in developing countries like the Philippines. She was an advisor to the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Information Communications and Technology and other key government agencies on strategic initiatives to ensure International Ethics Standards and democratic principles were observed in the digitization of government services. Her contributions to the public sector include drafting and monitoring policy implementation for number portability, SIM card registration, and national identity to promotes inclusive growth and democratic values. Karla brings with her an expansive network from her experience prior to serving her country. She worked with universities in Manila and Melbourne on early stage technology commercialization, in private equity funds focused on emerging economies in the Greater Mekong Region and Mongolia, and on promoting the slow food movement thru farm to table cuisine. Karla holds a B.A. in international studies from RMIT University, Melbourne.
 

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Jessie Torres

Jessie Torres is the senior manager of business strategy and industrial participation for Bell. In this role, he is responsible for developing and implementing industrial cooperation and offset programs in South America and Africa for both military and commercial programs. Jessie has over 13 years of offset experience and has successfully managed and executed offset in more than 10 countries. Jessie earned a bachelor’s degree in international economics and business from the University of North Texas with a minor in Spanish. He also completed a semester abroad at the National University of Costa Rica, where he took business and international trade courses in Spanish. He holds an M.Sc. in systems engineering from Southern Methodist University. Jessie is an alumnus of both the INROADS business organization and the Hispanic Business Student Association. He is also a member of the Defense Industry Offset Association and Global Offset Countertrade Association.
 

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Dr. Chandra Upadhyay

Dr. Chandra Upadhyay is an assistant professor and the head of the Department of Sociology at Mahendra Morang Adarsh Multiple Campus of Tribhuvan University (TU) in Nepal. He expects to complete his Ph.D. in sociology soon from Gauhati University, Assam, India, after earning his M.A. in sociology, M.A. in political science and LL.B. from TU. He is familiar with inclusive teaching and learning methods in co-ed classrooms in a disability-friendly environment. Chandra serves as an inclusion policy expert with the Ministry of Social Development in Province No. 1 of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. He has worked as a social expert and resource person for various non-governmental organizations and serves as a community leader. Chandra contributes to the Youth and Women Engagement Project in Nepal with the International Development Institute based in Washington, D.C. He was a UN volunteer in the United Nation’s Mission in Nepal and supported the Election Observation Project with The Carter Center. Chandra volunteers in youth leadership initiatives, provides free education to deserving students with difficult economic backgrounds from public schools, and supports elderly citizens and persons with disabilities in his hometown.