Daniel Hajjar is a program assistant with the Center for Middle East and Africa at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He supports regional initiatives and programming regarding North Africa.

Hajjar first joined USIP as a research assistant with the Office of Public Affairs and Communications in April 2014. In this role, he collaborated with team members on media relations and outreach. Prior to joining USIP, Hajjar worked as an assistant program coordinator with The George Washington University's Center for Student Engagement. He has also held several internship positions, including with the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. House of Representatives.

Hajjar is interested in political developments in the Middle East and North Africa as a whole. He has conducted research specifically on Lebanese state sovereignty and sectarian governmental system, freedom of the press violations in the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring and the use of Twitter by violent extremists to promote their narratives and recruit foreign fighters.

Hajjar holds a bachelor's degree in International Affairs from The George Washington University with a concentration in the Middle East. He recently obtained his master's degree in Global Communication, also from The George Washington University. Hajjar is fluent in Arabic and proficient in French.

Matt Ciesielski is a program assistant with the Center for Middle East and North Africa at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He supports the programming regarding the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict.                                           

Prior to joining USIP, Matt spent more than two years in international development and education in the MENA region. He spent time working on MENA youth civil society programming with ACTED in Amman, Jordan, working with youth from Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt after working on civil society and peacebuilding projects with Search for Common Ground in Rabat, Morocco and Jerusalem. He also taught English at AMIDEAST in Rabat and worked with an advocacy organization working with Muslims in America and the MENA region in Washington, DC. Matt’s research interests include citizen engagement and civil society in the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict and drivers of terrorism and conflict in the region. He is also proficient in Arabic.

Matt holds a B.A. in international relations with a concentration on the Middle East and foreign policy from Boston University.

Quiana Atherly is a senior administrative assistant for the Middle East and Africa Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Quiana joined USIP as a contractor after working for the Department of State as a DoS ambassador for the building and then with USIP as a contractor. She joined the MEA program within USIP during December 2013. Within MEA, she closely assists the program leadership team with establishing and managing the operations of the center. She coordinates closely and supports projects across the program including Generation Change, which is dedicated to empowering and building the capacity of civically engaged youth.

Quiana has interests in Latin and African arts and culture, the research of creative arts through social science, movement arts therapy and youth impacting global change through creative arts expression. She has established a national network within the movement arts community and is furthering her knowledge and impact on the community by empowering and engaging her peers.

Ruben Grangaard is a senior research analyst supporting the Learning and Evaluation Team at USIP. He joined USIP after a year and a half as an independent consultant and on-site research analyst with Mercy Corps.

Ruben has experience developing research designs, survey designs and conducting data analysis for a broad range of evaluations. Moreover, he has field research experience from India and Bangladesh. Among his research interests are economic development as a tool for peace and drivers of youth violence. His current focus is on how we can better measure ‘effectiveness’ of peacebuilding programs.

Ruben holds an M.A. in International and Development Economics from University of San Francisco and a B.A. in Economics from University of Queensland, Australia.

Tonis joined USIP in January 2015 as a program assistant for the Latin America program. Previously, she volunteered in Bogota, Colombia, teaching English as a foreign language with the U.S. nonprofit, World Teach. While in-country, Tonis taught University-level students,  staff and administrators at Universidad Minuto de Dios.

Though still an expert in training, Tonis has focused much of her attention to the Colombian Peace Process and is particularly interested in the forces behind the plight of millions of internally displaced persons in Colombia. She's also interested in education reform and its inclusion of historical memory, peace and mediation in school curriculum.

Tonis holds a post-graduate degree in Conflict Resolution from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Political Science and Latin American Studies from Wake Forest University.

Rachel is a program assistant with the Africa program at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Rachel joined USIP as full time staff after one year as a graduate student research assistant with the Africa team. Prior to joining USIP, Rachel worked with the Initiatives Team in the President’s Office at Georgetown University.

Rachel specializes in the ongoing crisis in the Central African Republic, working with the Africa team and USIP’s IMPACT initiative. Her research interests include extremist violence, democracy and governance in Africa, hybrid authoritarian regimes and identity narratives.

Rachel holds a Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution with concentrations in African Politics and Terrorism from Georgetown University, with some coursework completed through the University of Maryland National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and French Language & Literature from the University of Chicago, with some coursework completed through the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.

Danielle Robertson is a program assistant for Gender at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Danielle joined USIP in January 2014 as a research assistant for the Gender and Peacebuilding program, coordinating the work of the U.S. Civil Society Working Group (CSWG) on the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

In her current role, Danielle supports global initiatives related to gender equality. Specifically, she works with the Missing Peace Initiative, which focuses on the prevention and mitigation of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict settings. Prior to USIP, she worked as the assistant to the Skills Institute Program at American University, managing weekend training courses on a variety of skill-based topics. Her research interests include issues related to the historical memory of a conflict and its impact on the roles of men and women in post-conflict settings.

Danielle holds a master’s degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in International Development from Pennsylvania State University.

Mohyeldin Omer is a program assistant at the center for Middle East and North Africa at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Before joining USIP, Mr. Omer interned for U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp in the regional office and later in Washington D.C. working on international issues related to Middle East and Africa.

As a former McNair scholar, Mr. Omer conducted a yearlong academic research on U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East and North Africa, with in-depth section on Sudan and South Sudan, analyzing U.S. foreign policy approaches, idealism and realism, and their relative effectiveness in achieving peace in the region.

Between 2013 and 2016, Mohy represented the State of North Dakota as the official delegate to UNHCR, Refugee congress working with other delegates to ensure that the voices of refugees and asylum seekers become an integral part of United States policy discussion.

Currently, Mohy has been serving on the advisory board of the Institute for Sustainable Peace advising on issues related to leadership training and capacity building for Sudanese and Southern Sudanese leaders. He also serves on the board of directors of Refugee Center Online organization. Mr. Omer is generally interested in the political and economic development of the MENA and Africa regions.    

Mr. Omer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from North Dakota State University and associate degree of public administration from Al - Neelain University, Sudan. He is fluent in Arabic, Fulani and Barnu.

Noah is the special assistant to the Study Group on Fragility at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Before joining USIP, Noah was a senior associate consultant at the management consultancy Bain & Company, where he served clients across the aerospace & defense, retail and hospitality industries. He has experience with project management, organizational design, post-merger integration and operational improvement, as well as portfolio strategy. Previously, he was a research assistant to Ambassador Marc Grossman, and the CEO and co-executive director of the Elmseed Enterprise Fund, a nonprofit microlender serving low-income populations in New Haven, Connecticut.

Noah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Ethics, Politics & Economics and Global Affairs (International Security track) from Yale University. His thesis examined colonial legacies and ethnic conflicts in the frontier regions of Pakistan and India, and his Global Affairs capstone project evaluated the efficacy of U.S. sanctions in Burma and Libya for the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

Joshua Levkowitz is a program assistant with the Asia Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He supports programming regarding Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Prior to joining USIP, Joshua worked as a research associate at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington D.C. He researched and wrote on the Arab Gulf region’s political economy, infrastructure and youth culture. He has also worked at the National Democratic Institute, the Middle East Institute and the Samir Kassir Center for Media and Cultural Freedom. Joshua has past experience as a researcher, teacher and journalist in East Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Colombia. He is proficient in Arabic.   

Joshua holds an M.A. in conflict management and international economics from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in international relations from Boston University.

Krista Moore is a senior program assistant for Governance, Law and Society at the U.S. Institute of Peace. She currently supports USIP's work on countering violent extremism. Krista previously supported projects in North Africa and the Sahel related to security sector reform and border security cooperation. Prior to joining USIP, Krista served as assistant to the Vice President for Government Relations and Public Affairs at the National Endowment for Democracy, in addition to holding research and support positions with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, Vital Voices and The Carter Center. She holds a masters of International Security from Sciences Po in Paris, France, and a B.A. in International Studies from Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN.

Sarah is a program assistant in the Center for the Middle East and Africa at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she supports the Institute’s work in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

Prior to her current position, Sarah led the Genocide Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, where she analyzed U.S. policies during the Rwanda, Srebrenica and Darfur genocides through Freedom of Information Act requests and primary source research. She also worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a Peace Fellow through the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, The Advocacy Project. While in Bosnia, Sarah worked closely with a grassroots women’s organization made of Srebrenica massacre survivors, and supported their economic independence, community development and reconciliation programs, and led fundraising efforts. Sarah has also interned with the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, the offices of Colorado Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, and the Global Refugee Center in Greeley, CO.

Sarah’s areas of expertise include genocide and mass atrocity prevention, community-driven conflict resolution, women’s involvement in peacebuilding, and the nexus between transnational organized crime and terrorism. Her research has primarily focused on Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda and the Balkans. In partnership with the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Sarah developed policy recommendations with a team of fellow graduate students to mitigate the effects of al-Shabaab’s organized criminal activities on statebuilding in Somalia and conducted field research in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sarah holds an M.A. in International Affairs with a concentration in Conflict Resolution and French language proficiency from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. She received her B.A. in International Affairs with an emphasis in Africa and the Middle East from the University of Northern Colorado.

Lauren McNally is a program assistant with the Asia Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace where she supports programming in Pakistan and South Asia. 

Prior to joining USIP, Lauren worked as a research assistant at the Middle East Institute’s Center for Pakistan Studies in Washington D.C. She researched and wrote on counterterrorism strategy and security challenges in Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

Lauren has also worked at the Institute for the Study of War, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) North America and the U.S. Department of State. She has conducted research on violent extremist groups, political violence, civil-military relations, energy security and governance development in South Asia and the Middle East. She has studied Arabic, Russian and Farsi.

Lauren is pursuing a M.A. in security studies at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and holds a B.A. in international affairs from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

I-wei Jennifer Chang is a program specialist in the China Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace. She works on research, writing and project development to better understand China’s role in global conflict zones—namely, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma and African countries. Chang joined USIP after working as a research assistant in international affairs and U.S. foreign policy focusing on the Indo-Asia Pacific at the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C. from 2015 to mid-2016. She has also written numerous articles and a book chapter on China’s economic and diplomatic relations with Middle Eastern countries with a recent focus on Chinese policies on the Arab uprisings. She is a contributor to the Middle East Institute’s “Middle East-Asia Project.”  Her research interests include Chinese diplomacy and foreign policy in the Indo-Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, as well as Chinese peacebuilding efforts and approaches to counterterrorism.

Chang received a Bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and two Master’s degrees in Journalism and International Relations from the University of Maryland. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Prior to joining USIP, Ismael served as a business development and program associate at Partners for Development in Silver Spring, MD, supporting health, agricultural development and economic empowerment projects in Benin, Nigeria and Cambodia. 

He also worked at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in Washington, DC, as an intern in the Africa Program.  Among other topics, he conducted research on Africa's evolving role in the global arena, inclusive governance and leadership, trade and investment and upcoming presidential elections.

His research interests include poverty alleviation and sustainable development through access to education in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ismael holds a M.A in Integral Economic Development Management from the Catholic University of America and a B.A in International Business from Howard University.  His main research project in graduate school consisted in evaluating a non-profit organization dedicated to providing computer labs and training to public primary schools throughout Guatemala. 

Languages: French (Native) & Spanish (conversational)

Jude Mutah is a program assistant at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Prior to joining USIP, Jude worked for the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC. as a contractor. He also worked for the Africa Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for scholars in the District of Columbia where he conducted in-depth research on conflict management and peacebuilding in Africa, and also provided support for research fellow Dr. James Schear, among other topics.

Jude is also a founder of the JM Foundation for Youth Advocacy, a not-for-profit and charitable organization that works to provide support to young people, underprivileged and orphans in Africa, starting from Cameroon. In this role, he leads the development and execution of humanitarian activities that have so far benefited at least 30 young people, including orphans and the underprivileged in Cameroon.

His research interest is rule of law, and specifically, the role of transitional justice systems in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, and has published research papers on conflict prevention and peacebuilding in Cameroon.

Jude holds a Licence en Droit from Yaoundé University in Cameroon; Master of Advanced Studies in Peace and Conflict Transformation from the University of Basel, Switzerland; and a Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) in International and Comparative Law from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.