MEPC - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Ambassador Anne W. Patterson is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. She was the Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and North African Affairs at the Department of State (2013-2017). She served as Ambassador to Egypt (2011-2013), to Pakistan (2007-2010), to Colombia (2000-2003) and to El Salvador (1997-2000). She retired in 2017 with the rank of Career Ambassador after more than four decades in the Foreign Service. Ambassador Patterson also served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and as Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Patterson was named one of Foreign Policy's 100 Top Global Thinkers in 2011. She is a two-time recipient of the State Department's Distinguished Service award. She has been appointed to two congressional commissions: the Commission on National Defense Strategy in 2017 and the Syria Study Group in 2019.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Ambassador Chas Freeman is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He served as U. S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989 to 1992, a period which included operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He is a Senior Fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, and Chairman of the Board of Projects International, Inc., a Washington-based business development firm. Freeman has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. His diplomatic postings also included Deputy Chief of Mission in Bangkok and Beijing, as well as service in India. He was also Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State and served as the principal American interpreter during President Nixon's visit to China in 1972. He is the author of several books, including America's Misadventures in the Middle East (2010), Interesting Times: China, America, and the Shifting Balance of Prestige (2013), and America's Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East (2016). Freeman holds a BA degree from Yale University and a JD degree from the Harvard Law School.
Job Titles:
- President
- President of the Board of Directors
Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley is the President and a Member of the Board of Directors (ex officio) at the Middle East Policy Council. She has held senior positions in the U.S. government, including Ambassador to the Republic of Malta, Consul General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Foreign Policy Advisor to the Commander of U.S. Cyber Forces, Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Director for the Office of Egypt and the Levant at the U.S. Department of State. Amid these roles, she expanded our counterterrorism partners and programs and coordinated the largest evacuation of American citizens from a war zone since WWII. Earlier in her career she participated in election monitoring in the Gaza strip and actively supported gender equality in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the first woman to lead a diplomatic mission there. She has served as Chairwoman for Middle East Area Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, has held senior positions at the Defense Department and at the National Security Council focused on the Middle East, and was a Presidential Management Fellow with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Prior to her most recent senior appointment as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the U.S. Department of State, Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley was a member of the Middle East Policy Council's Board of Directors. She has degrees from The George Washington University and The Johns Hopkins University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Ambassador Patrick Theros is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He served as Ambassador to Qatar from 1995 to 1998. He is a former President and Executive Director of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council in Washington, DC. Theros was a career Foreign Service Officer from 1963 to 1999. In addition to his Ambassadorship, his assignments included Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Political Advisor to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command, Deputy Chief of Mission and Political Officer in Amman, Jordan, Chargé d'affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Economic and Commercial Counselor in Damascus, Syria. He also served in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Nicaragua. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy, and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. He holds a BA degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and has done advanced study at the American University in Washington, D.C., the Universidad Centroamericana in Managua, Nicaragua, the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, and the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
Job Titles:
- Chairman Emeritus
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Board of Directors
- President Emeritus
Ambassador Richard J. Schmierer is a Board Member at the Middle East Policy Council and the Council's former President and Board Chair. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman from 2009 through 2012 and completed his Foreign Service career in 2014 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA). In 2013, Amb. Schmierer served as NEA Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary. Previously he was the NEA Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq, and Director of the Office of Iraq Affairs. Amb. Schmierer was at Georgetown University from 2005 through 2007, where he published the book Iraq: Policy and Perceptions. He had prior diplomatic postings in Iraq, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. Amb. Schmierer holds a B.A. degree from Lehigh University and an M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Ambassador Ronald E. Neumann is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He served as Ambassador to Afghanistan (2005-2007), Bahrain (2001-2004), and Algeria (1994-1997). He is currently the President of the American Academy of Diplomacy. A career Foreign Service Officer, Neumann served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and in Sana'a, Yemen. His diplomatic postings also included Baghdad, Iraq, Tabriz, Iran, and Dakar, Senegal. His domestic assignments included Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Near East Affairs and Director of the Office of Northern Gulf Affairs. Neumann is the author of The Other War: Winning and Losing in Afghanistan (2009). He is on the Advisory Committee of the non-profit School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA). He was an Army infantry officer in Viet Nam and holds a Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal and Combat Infantry Badge. In Baghdad, he was awarded the Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal. He holds B.A. and MA degrees from the University of California at Riverside.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
Ambassador William A. Rugh is Vice Chairman Emeritus and Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He served as Ambassador to Yemen from 1984 to 1987, and as Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 1992 to 1995. As a Foreign Service Officer, Rugh had nine diplomatic postings in the Middle East over his 31-year career, including Deputy Chief of Mission in Syria. Between 1995 and 2003 he was President and CEO of AMIDEAST. Rugh is a Trustee of the American University in Cairo and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of several books, including: American Encounters with Arabs: the "Soft Power" of U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Arab World (2005), Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio and Television in Arab Politics (2008), and Front Line Diplomacy: How U.S. Embassies Communicate with Foreign Publics (2014). He has a B.A. degree from Oberlin College, an MA degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Dr. Annie Tracy Samuel is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council, an associate professor of history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and president of the Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society. She previously served as a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She is a scholar of modern Middle Eastern history and politics focusing on post-revolutionary Iran, security and military affairs, and U.S. foreign policy in the region. Her book, The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War: Faith, Firepower, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. Dr. Tracy Samuel earned her Ph.D. and M.A. (magna cum laude) in history from Tel Aviv University and her B.A. in history and political science from Columbia College, Columbia University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Dr. Sobelman is assistant professor of international relations in the Department of International Relations of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a research fellow in the International Security Program at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Specializing in asymmetric coercion in contemporary Middle Eastern conflicts, Dr. Sobelman has published extensively on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
Dr. Abhishek Deshpande is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council and a Vice President at ADNOC Group where he is heading the Market Intelligence team based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He joined ADNOC in March 2023. Dr. Deshpande has had an international career spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Before joining ADNOC Group, he was the Head of Global Commodities Research at OMV AG based at their HQ in Vienna, Austria, and he spent over a decade in Investment Banking heading global commodities and energy research teams at international banks including J.P. Morgan & Chase in New York and Natixis SA (Groupe BPCE) in London as well as Paris. As a hands-on energy strategist, Dr. Deshpande carried out a bottom-up fundamental and econometric analysis of energy markets and provided trade ideas and official price forecasts for the institutions he worked for. In his capacity as the head of research in banking, he regularly advised U.S. State Department, U.S. DOE, U.S. Treasury, Saudi Energy Ministry as well as Mexico's Finance ministry on energy markets. Dr. Deshpande has a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from University of Cambridge. At Cambridge, he worked on micro-fluidics development and its application in fine chemicals industry. He holds a Chartered status and fellowship from the Institute of Chemical Engineers (UK) and Energy Institute (UK).
Dr. Brian K. Barber is a Senior Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council and a Senior Fellow at Institute for Palestine Studies. He was recently an International Security Fellow at New America and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tennessee. As a social/cultural/political psychologist, he has studied youth and families in 15 cultures across the globe. For the past 30 years, Dr. Barber has researched more than 10,000 youth and families in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and, most intensively, the Gaza Strip - where he has had long stays every year since 1994. His research findings have been published widely in top academic, medical, and public health journals, providing insight into if, how, why, and when youth engage in political activism, and what its impacts are in shaping their future lives, with unique insights into the nature of mental suffering and resilience. Barber is editor of the Oxford University Press volume Adolescents and War: How Youth Deal with Political Conflict. He is currently writing a narrative non-fiction on three Gazan families he has known intimately over the decades.
Dr. David Roberts is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council and a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at King's College London where he leads the twin-track Arabic and English Master of Research (MRes) programme in the School of Security Studies. Additionally, Dr. Roberts is Adjunct Faculty at Science Po's Paris School of International Affairs, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute Washington, and the founder and commissioning editor for Cambridge University Press's book series Elements in Middle East Politics. Previously, Dr. Roberts taught for King's at the Qatar Defence Academy, and he was the Director of the Gulf office of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security studies think-tank (RUSI Qatar). He obtained his Ph.D. from Durham University.
Dr. Jamal Nusseibeh is a Senior Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council and a Palestinian-American lawyer and investor. He is a barrister-at-law in the U.K., and was professor at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem for a number of years, where he was also Vice President. He is currently CEO of a Greenwich, CT investment firm. He held the Palestine and Law Fellowship at Columbia University in 2014-15, and during his career has been involved in second-track peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. Dr. Nusseibeh has published in various international and Palestinian publications, including Time Magazine and Al Quds newspaper in Jerusalem. He has a M.A. from Sciences Po in Paris, a law degree from City University in London and a LL.M. and Ph.D. (JSD) from Columbia University in New York.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Dr. Janet Breslin-Smith is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. She was a professor for 14 years at the National War College in Washington, DC; she was named Outstanding Professor at the College in 2006, and was the first woman to Chair the College's Department of National Security Strategy. Prior to her academic career, she was Legislative Director for Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Agriculture Committee. While living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2013, Dr. Breslin-Smith focused on higher education and outreach to women in the Middle East. She has written and lectured on Strategy and Culture, Macro-economics and Islam, and Women, Islam and Saudi Arabia. Her work includes "The Struggle to Erase Saudi Extremism," which appeared in November 2015 in the New York Times, and co-authorship of The National War College: A History of Strategic Thinking in Peace and War. Dr. Breslin-Smith holds a B.A. from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Job Titles:
- Fellow at the Institute of Middle East Studies
Dr. Ali is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Middle East Studies, Northwest University, Xi'an, China, and assistant professor of international relations at the Department of International Relations, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Pakistan.
Dr. Shahid Ali is Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council and an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Foreign Policy at the Department of International Relations at Lahore College for Women University (LCWU). He previously worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Middle East Studies (IMES), Northwest University, Xi'an, China. Previously, he worked as an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore. Dr. Ali's work has been published in reputed peer-reviewed journals, including Contemporary South Asia and Middle East Policy, among others. Dr. Ali holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the School of International Public Affairs (SIPA), Jilin University, China, which was fully funded by the Chinese Government Scholarship awarded by the China Scholarship Council.
Dr. Nahhas is a researcher in political science and a lecturer in the Department of History at Beit Berl College in Israel.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Leadership Team
Dr. Tüysüzoğlu is associate professor in the Department of International Relations, Giresun University, Turkey.
Dr. Grigoriadis is associate professor and Jean Monnet Chair in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Congressman James P. ("Jim") Moran is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He represented Virginia's 8th Congressional District from 1991 to 2015, where he was known for his bipartisan leadership. He served on the Appropriations, Foreign Affairs, Banking, Housing and Finance, and Government Reform and Oversight committees during his 12 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to his time congress, Moran served as mayor of the City of Alexandria, Virginia (1985-1990). Congressman Moran's other professional experience includes senior staff member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, senior specialist for budgetary and fiscal policy at the Library of Congress, co-chair of the Congressional Sovereign Wealth Funds Task Force, and acting director of the budget office for Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Services in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Congressman Moran holds a BA in economics from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and a Masters degree from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.
Mr. Samuel, who will earn a doctorate in Islamic Civilizations Studies from Emory University in spring 2024, is a legal scholar and comparativist focusing on the laws, discourses, and institutions that shape the normative relationships between Indigenous communities and the states in which they reside in the Middle East and the Anglosphere.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Editor, Middle East Policy
Mr. A.R. Joyce is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council and the editor of the Council's quarterly journal, Middle East Policy. In this position, he leads the initiative of expanding its readership through innovation. After serving as editor and supervisor on the online news desk of the Associated Press, Mr. Joyce was copy editor of Middle East Policy from 2017-2022. He started his career working on the development of cutting-edge technology products for television news editors. He holds a BA from Duke University and an MFA from the University of Iowa.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Combiz Abdolrahimi is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He is a globally recognized emerging technology and innovation leader, a government relations expert and former senior government official, a U.S. national security and international lawyer, and a proponent of commercial diplomacy and DEIA worldwide. He has advised Presidents and Heads of State, Parliamentarians and Members of Congress, and global CEOs on emerging technology, policy, and innovation issues. He serves on multiple boards and advisory committees including with the World Economic Forum, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Economic Development, Meridian International Center, Council on Foreign Relations, Agile Nations, and Black Professionals in International Affairs. Born in Texas, the son of proud immigrants from the Middle East, Combiz is a graduate of UCLA; American University of Beirut; and Georgetown Law. He is the recipient of the World Economic Forum's Agile 50 Award for being one of the world's 50 most influential people championing public sector innovation globally. Combiz speaks several languages including Turkish, Persian, Azerbaijani, and Arabic, and is dedicated to fostering a world where technology, diplomacy, and responsible policies converge to pave the way for a hopeful, transformative era of lasting peace, shared prosperity, and strong relations between the U.S. and the countries and peoples of the Middle East.
For scheduling inquiries with Council leadership or other questions, please contact Sharon Arana at sarana@mepc.org.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Leon Shahabian is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He serves as a principal at Global Insights Group LLC, an advisory services firm that focuses on the Arabian Gulf and due diligence, and is a senior associate of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). He co-founded Layalina Productions in 2002 - a 501c(3) non-profit that worked on improving US-Arab relations after 9/11 - and left as its president and executive producer in 2019. An award-winning filmmaker with credits from MBC Group channels, Al Arabiya, OSN, the Sundance Channel, and distribution by New Line Television, and Warner Brothers, Leon has implemented cooperative agreements in 15 Arab countries on behalf of the US Department of State and participated in track II diplomacy engagements. Leon is a guest lecturer at National Intelligence University in Maryland. He has testified to the UN Security Council in New York. Mr. Shahabian is a member of the Board of Visitors of the Political Science Department at Penn State, and a life member of the Public Diplomacy Council of America (PDCA). A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Penn State University with degrees in International Politics and French, Leon has received a certificate in National Security and Strategy from the US Army War College in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Marco Mossad is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council, and he currently manages a federally funded program at a prominent national refugee resettlement organization. He leverages his expertise and passion for international relations, with a specific focus on U.S. foreign policy in the MENA region, immigration, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity issues, backed by a master's degree from Liberty University. Mr. Mossad is deeply engaged in the intersection of technology and international affairs, affiliating with All Tech is Human, Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, and the Center for AI and Digital Policy. His technical background is demonstrated by holding five cybersecurity certificates, including Certified Ethical hacker (CEH) and CompTIA Security+. Mr. Mossad is a familiar face on Middle Eastern news channels. He is fluent in Arabic, German, and English. Additionally, Marco contributes insightful analysis articles in both languages to various U.S. and Middle Eastern foreign policy outlets, underscoring his commitment to global dialogue.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Perry Cammack is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He has been the Peacebuilding program director at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019. Previously, he was a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an adjunct professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Perry worked for more than a decade on Middle East issues in the United States government, including as an advisor to then-Senators Joseph Biden and John Kerry on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2003-2013 and as a member of the State Department policy planning staff from 2013-2015. Perry is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He holds a BA degree from the University of Maryland and a MA degree from Columbia University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Richard Albright is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary, and in 2021, as Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) at the U.S. Department of State, where he directed humanitarian assistance policy and programs in Asia, the Near East and Africa and guided PRM's institutional relationships with humanitarian agencies. From 2016 to 2018, Mr. Albright was Deputy Assistant Secretary and Coordinator for Foreign Assistance in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. In prior Foreign Service assignments, he served as: Foreign Policy Advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations; Coordinator for Civilian Assistance at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad; Economic Minister-Counselor at Embassy London; Humanitarian Coordinator at Embassy Baghdad; Director of PRM's Office of Assistance for Asia and the Near East; and Deputy Chief of Mission in Abu Dhabi. He also held economic policy assignments in Cairo, Paris, and Riyadh and served as desk officer for Algeria. Albright is the recipient of Presidential Rank, Superior and Meritorious Honor awards. He holds a BA in political science from the University of Chicago and MA from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Tarik Solomon is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He is the Founding Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce Saudi Arabia - Defense & Security Industry Executive - where he advises leading multinational companies on the political, legal, and regulatory risk factors that impact their objectives in seeking to enter or expand into Middle East markets. His consistently demonstrated ability to successfully transplant business strategies to emerging markets, where barriers to entry are high, has endowed him with a reputation for being innovative and resilient. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. from Johnson & Wales University and his M.B.A. was completed at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Tom Walter is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. He served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of ExxonMobil Saudi Arabia, Inc., from 2013 to 2015. Walter began his 37 year career with ExxonMobil as an electrical engineer in Saudi Arabia. Following that he held a variety of engineering and management positions with the company in refining, supply and marketing in the United States, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and Egypt. Before assuming his position as head of ExxonMobil Saudi Arabia, Walter was ExxonMobil Egypt's Chairman and Managing Director of Fuels Marketing, including responsibility for ExxonMobil's fuels marketing activities across North Africa and in Cyprus. Walter holds a B.A. degree from North Dakota State University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Vice President & Member of the Board of Directors Editor Emeritus, Middle East Policy
Ms. Anne Joyce is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. She was the editor of the Council's quarterly journal of political analysis, Middle East Policy, and director of MEPC's publications from 1984 through 2022. In 1993 she was named Vice-president of the Council and a member of the Board of Directors. In her time as editor, Joyce supervised the production of more than 140 issues of the journal, as well as numerous conference proceedings and several special reports and books. Before coming to the Council, she held positions at the American Language Institute of Georgetown University and at the University of Iowa. She holds a B.A degree from Central Methodist University and MA degrees from the University of Iowa and the University of Missouri.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Leadership Team
Ms. Bassima Alghussein is the Executive Director and a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. Prior to joining the MEPC, she founded Alghussein Global Strategies, a government affairs and communications consulting firm. She has executed projects involving the U.S. Congress, U.S. Dept. of State, European Union, British Parliament, Egyptian Parliament, International Monetary Fund and the World Economic Forum. Ms. Alghussein is a Truman National Security Project Political Expert, a Board Member of Women of Color Advancing Peace & Security (WCAPS) and a member of the Meridian International Center Young Global Leaders Council. She frequently appears on international news outlets to discuss foreign and domestic policy issues. Ms Alghussein earned her master's degree from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Security Studies and her bachelor's degree from Mount Holyoke College in International Relations.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
Ms. Jasmine Zaki is the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council and a Senior Legal Counsel at Bechtel Corporation. Formerly, she was a lawyer at ArentFox Schiff where she advised clients operating in the Middle East and North Africa on commercial transactions and arrangements, including joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, commercial agencies, and franchising agreements. She assisted clients with structuring commercial contracts, distribution agreements, and services agreements and provides legal advice related to public international law, banking, policy, and political risk, economic development, and investment. In addition, she advised clients on entering emerging markets in post-conflict countries and countries in transition in the Middle East and Africa, with an emphasis on negotiating political, regulatory, and formation matters. She has advised clients seeking investments in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region and Middle Eastern and North African nations, including Syria, Iraq and Libya; numerous US- and UK-based companies on market entry, establishment and compliance in Iraq and the Kurdistan region, with political and risk analyses; and sovereign governments in public international law, policy, banking, investment, and transactional matters. Jasmine serves on the board of SEED for Change as the Kurdistan Board Member, is a media contributor on current events in the Middle East, and serves on the Iraqi Business Council. She holds a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law and a BA from University of Memphis (cum laude). Prior to attending law school, Jasmine worked at the United Nations as the Press Officer for the UN Mission to Iraq. She is fluent in English and Arabic.
Job Titles:
- Director of Educational Programs & Managing Editor
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Ms. Karen Koning AbuZayd is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. She served as Under Secretary General and Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), based in Gaza, from 2000 to 2012. Since 2011 she has served as a pro bono Commissioner on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. Her UN service has also included working in various capacities for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR) in Sudan, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Geneva, and as Regional Representative for Washington, DC / Caribbean. AbuZayd has taught Middle East politics at Makerere University in Uganda and Juba University in southern Sudan. She is currently a member of several refugee and humanitarian boards, among them UNRWA USA (Washington, D.C.). In 2016, she served as the Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General for the Global Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants. She is the recipient of Austria's Grosse Goldene medal, and the Spanish UN Association's Premier Peace Prize. In 2015 AbuZayd was named the 2015 Chicago Woman Extraordinaire by International Women Associates in Chicago. She holds a B.S. degree from DePauw University and an MA degree from McGill University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Ms. Melanie Kenderdine is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Middle East Policy Council. She joined former Secretary of Energy Ernest J. Moniz and fellow Principal Joseph S. Hezir in founding the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to driving innovation in energy technology, policy, and business models. Kenderdine worked in the Obama administration at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from May 2013 to January 2017. She served concurrently as energy counselor to the secretary and as the director of DOE's Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis. Prior to her service at DOE, Kenderdine helped establish the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and served there as executive director. Before joining MITEI, she was vice president of Washington operations for the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) from 2001 to 2007. From 1993 to 2001, Kenderdine was an appointee in President Bill Clinton's administration, where she served in several key posts at DOE, including senior policy advisor to the secretary, Bill Richardson, director of the Office of Policy, and deputy assistant secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. She was a primary architect of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve oil exchange of 2000, the creation of the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, and the return of the Naval Oil Shale Reserve No. 2 to the Ute tribe in Utah, the largest land transfer back to Native Americans in the lower 48 in over 100 years. Prior to joining DOE, Kenderdine was chief of staff and legislative director for then-New Mexico Congressman Richardson.
Ms. Negar Mortazavi is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council, an award-winning journalist and commentator, editor and host of the Iran Podcast, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, based in Washington DC. She has been covering Iranian and Middle Eastern affairs as well as U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East for over a decade. Ms. Mortazavi was previously a television anchor for Voice of America where she hosted a Persian talk show on current affairs and an English news segment on U.S. elections. She was also a Washington Correspondent for Iran International television, and previously worked at the International Center For Journalists, the National Iranian American Council, and the United Nations Development Programme headquarters in New York. Ms. Mortazavi was previously a television anchor for Voice of America where she hosted a Persian talk show on current affairs an on current affairs and an English news segment on U.S. elections. She was also a Washington Correspondent for Iran International television, and previously worked at the International Center For Journalists, the National Iranian American Council, and the United Nations Development Programme headquarters in New York. She obtained an M.A. from Brandeis University and a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts.
Job Titles:
- Director of Communications & Congressional Liaison
Job Titles:
- Professor and Head of the Department of Middle Eastern
Dr. Winckler is professor and head of the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Haifa.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of International Relations and Foreign Policy
Dr. Verma is associate professor of international relations and foreign policy in the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Shanghai International Studies University, Songjiang campus, Shanghai, China.
Ranj Tofik is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council, a Kurdish researcher, and a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Warsaw, Poland. His research and interest focus on politics in the Middle East, the Kurdish issue, the role of the Middle East in US-China relations, and geopolitics. He is currently working on his doctoral dissertation on the importance of Iran in the American-Chinese competition. He has publications in English, Kurdish, and Arabic.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
Dr. Azad is associate professor of international relations in the Department of Political Science at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.
Mr. Aras is a master's student in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Bilkent University.