Our Visiting Scholars & Practitioners-in-Residence

The Sié Center is proud to host visiting scholars and practitioners-in-residence who enrich our community. 

Visiting Scholars

The Visiting Scholars Program is open to professors, lecturers and researchers with independent funding who wish to spend one month to one year at the Sié Center to pursue research activities. Visiting scholars will receive access to the university facilities, including the libraries; email privileges; office space; and the opportunity to meet and work with students and colleagues with similar academic interests. Depending on the length of their stay, vsiting scholars may be asked to give guest lectures or teach a course related to their research during the term of their appointment and give a presentation at the Korbel Research Seminar (KRS) Series. 

Arsalan Bilal

Recent Visiting Scholar: Arsalan Bilal

Arsalan Bilal—commonly known as AB—is a doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Peace Studies (CPS) – UiT The Arctic University of Norway. CPS is the only university-based peace centre in Norway. AB is also the coordinator of The Grey Zone research group at UiT which focuses on hybrid threats and warfare. His doctoral research revolves around the intersection of disinformation—particularly on digital and social media—and right-wing populism. He delves into how the interplay of these phenomena impinges upon state and societal security in Pakistan, Europe (mainly Norway), and the United States. Before starting his doctorate, AB completed a Master’s programme in Peace and Conflict Transformation at CPS. He also has a Master’s degree in international relations from Pakistan’s National Defence University. AB has recently been teaching security studies, hybrid war and peace, and the Afghan conflict. He is currently supervising a master’s project on the portrayal of the 2021 Taliban takeover in the press in India and Pakistan. His research focuses on: right-wing populism in U.S., European, and South Asian contexts; militancy and the role of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan; regional politics and security in South Asia (including the role of China); politics and security in the Middle East (especially Turkey); the changing nature of security and hybrid warfare (also with reference to Russia); radicalization and religious extremism in South Asia and Central Asia.. AB is profoundly interested in building research collaborations with the University of Denver’s faculty and researchers in pursuing and publishing research on any of these themes. 

Apply to Be a Visiting Scholar

Interested scholars should us send their curriculum vitae, a two-page description of their research project (including why affiliation with the Sié Center would be beneficial), a statement of financial support, and the proposed dates of residency. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. 

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Practitioners-in-Residence

With support from the Carnegie Corporation and Jewish Women's Fund of Colorado, the Sié Center brings prominent practitioners from government and non-governmental organizations to the Korbel School for a set time—whether several days, weeks, or a quarter—to share practical insight and expertise with students and faculty. Depending on the length of their stay, practitioners may teach a class, guest lecture, hold public lectures, share field knowledge or policy conundrums, and give career advice to students. Equally important, practitioners-in-residence advise on the relevancy of particular approaches to research to ensure that Sié Center research responds to contemporary policy concerns and strategies. 

Practitioners-in-residence may be nominated by any member of the Korbel School faculty but must be endorsed by a member of the Sié Center team. During the term of their appointment, Practitioners-in-Residence typically receive a stipend, travel and lodging allotment, access to the University facilities, office space, and the opportunity to meet and work with students and faculty.  

IGLI Practitioners-in-Residence

Carolina Barrero is a Cuban human rights advocate and democracy activist for the end of violence and authoritarianism, for peace and respect of civil and political rights. She took part in the protest movement that challenged Cuba's totalitarian regime in 2021 as a member of 27N and San Isidro Movement. She was consequently detained, prosecuted and arrested until she was finally forced into exile in February 2022. She has been invited as speaker in events such as the Oslo Freedom Forum, College Freedom Forum, Human Rights Watch Annual Council and World Liberty Congress. From exile she continues to advocate for freedom in Cuba and to support activists inside the island. She is an author in magazines and newspapers such as Artishock, The Art Newspaper, El Estornudo, Rialta and Hypermedia Magazine. 

 

Choman Hardi s an educator, poet, and scholar known for pioneering work on issues of gender and education in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and beyond. After 26 years of exile, she returned home in 2014 to teach English and initiate gender studies at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS), where she also served as English department chair in 2015-16. 

She founded the Center for Gender and Development Studies CGDS at AUIS in 2015, developed and taught feminist courses, built a team, fundraised, and conducted and published research. Choman was the driving force behind initiating the first interdisciplinary gender studies minor in Iraq in 2017. She was also keen to make gender studies resources available in Kurdish and Arabic, and, with her team, secured funding from the European Union for it. In 2019, she received support from the UK Global Challenges Research Fund for a research project about masculinity and violence as part of the gender, justice and security hub in partnership with London School of Economics. 

Choman is the author of critically acclaimed books in the fields of poetry, academia, and translation. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, her post-doctoral research, Gendered Experiences of Genocide: Anfal Survivors in Kurdistan-Iraq (Routledge, 2011) was named a UK Core Title by the Yankee Book Peddler. Since 2010,  poems from her first English collection, Life for Us (Bloodaxe, 2004) have been studied by secondary school students as part of their general curriculum in the UK (AQA and Edexel). Her second collection, Considering the Women (Bloodaxe, 2015), was given a recommendation by the Poetry Book Society and shortlisted for the prestigious Forward Prize for Best Collection. In 2017, a selection of her poems was published in Italian. In 2020, Considering the Woman was released in a French translation

A former chairperson of Exiled Writers Ink!, Choman has facilitated creative writing workshops for the School of Oriental and African Studies, The Arvon Foundation, Spread the Word, Shetland Arts, Academi Wales, Southbank Centre, Apples and Snakes, and the British Council. She was Poet-In-Residence at Moniack Mhor Writers Centre in Scotland, Villa Hellebosch in Belgium, Hedgebrook Women Writers’ Retreat in the USA, and The Booth in Shetland. 

 

Farida Bemba Nabourema is a social activist and writer, recently emerging as the unequivocal voice of Togo’s pro-democracy movement. Farida has been a fearless advocate for democracy and human rights in Togo since she was a teenager. Through over 400 articles written on her blog and other sites, Farida denounces corruption, dictatorship and promotes a form of progressive Pan Africanism. In 2014, Farida published a book in French titled “La Pression de oppression” (The Pressure of Oppression) in which she discussed the different forms of oppression that people face throughout Africa and highlighted the need for youth and women to be politically engaged.

 

Former Practitioners-in-Residence

  • Dóra Piroska

    Dóra Piroska was a virtual visiting scholar and practitioner in 2022. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at Central European University. She holds a PhD from the Central European University in Political Science International Relations track. She has been a Junior Researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Economics, a Lecturer at the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, an Associate Professor at International Business School, Budapest and most recently an Associate Professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest. 

    Piroska is a political economist with research and teaching interests in international and comparative political economy and politics of finance. She has a special interest in the Central and Eastern European region and studies politics of banking related issues in Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria. Her latest research focuses on development finance both at the national and international levels. She has a special interest in the EBRD. Recently she has published on the macroprudential turn in bank regulation, on the Banking Union’s perception in Eastern non-Eurozone member states and on the competing crisis management approaches of the Troika institutions to fund Hungary during the 2008 financial crisis. She has published in Competition and Change, Europe-Asia Studies, Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Policy and Society and Third World Thematics and in a number of Hungarian outlets. 

  • József Péter Martin

    József Péter Martin was a visiting scholar in 2022. He is an economist and a sociologist and obtained his M.A. and PhD degrees from the Corvinus University of Budapest (CUB). He has been working as Executive Director of Transparency International Hungary since 2013. He is responsible for all activities such as professional output, operation, external relations, etc. In addition to his position at TI Hungary, József is a senior lecturer at the CUB delivering courses on corruption analysis, governance and political economy. In 2019 he was seconded by Transparency International UK as director of research for six months. He is native Hungarian and speaks English, French and Russian. 

    Martin started his career as an economic journalist with a daily paper called “Világgazdaság” (’World Economy’). After that, he worked in the editorial office of “Figyelő” (’Observer’) then a prestigious economic weekly, in various positions, and served as editor-in-chief for six years after 2003. Under his leadership, “Figyelő” won the Pulitzer Memorial Prize in 2006. After years devoted to journalism, Martin worked as consultant and analyst commissioned by several domestic and international institutions between 2010 and 2013. For a decade and a half, he has been a regular contributor to Hungarian and international media. Having published two dozen academic and policy publications, his field of research is political economy, corruption and euro-skepticism. He was the co-author of a book on the 2008 economic crisis, called “Álomcsőd” (’Dream Default’). 

  • Honey Al-Sayed

    Honey Al Sayed is a practitioner-in-residence for the 2019 fall quarter. Honey's stay is part of the Sié Center's Inclusive Global Leadership Initiative (IGLI), which initiates research, education, and programming aimed at elevating and amplifying the work that women-identified activists are doing at the grassroots to promote peace, justice, and human rights around the world.

    Honey Al Sayed is an award-winning independent media expert and entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and the United States. She broke new ground in Syria's media scene with the #1 rated morning show "Good Morning Syria," which she hosted for 6 years with an average of 7 million daily listeners. After the outbreak of the Syrian uprising, she was forced into exile in the U.S. and co-founded an online radio called SouriaLi that reached 500,000 listeners in Syria and in the diaspora.

    Honey then founded MAP – Media and Arts for Peace – a creative consulting agency representing top media and arts professionals from conflict zones and diaspora communities. MAP trains and advises on how to strategically apply media and arts tools for transformational social change. Beyond MAP, Honey shares her experience and expertise with the next generation through courses she has taught at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, as well as through an online course she developed for the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and the U.S. Institute of Peace. She will teach a similar course at the Josef Korbel School this fall for graduate students, INTS 4708 "Media, Arts, and Culture: Fueling War or Creating Peace?"

    Regularly invited as a keynote speaker and commentator on women's empowerment and the role of media in social change, Honey has appeared at the UN General Assembly, United Nations Foundation, GCSP, U.S. National Press Corps, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Institute of Peace, among many others. Honey is an Associate Fellow at the GCSP and she holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and a Bachelor of Science in Communication Media from the Lebanese American University.

  • Riva Kantowitz

    Dr. Riva Kantowitz's work focuses on the prevention of conflict and violence, promotion of human rights, transitional justice, community and individual resilience, leadership development and organizational support in fragile and developing environments. Working under both Obama Administrations, she founded and led a team at the U.S. Department of State that provides strategic direction and oversight to a global investment portfolio to promote human rights in conflict-affected countries. Previously, Dr. Kantowitz co-directed the Program in Conflict Transformation at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey. She has worked with local civil society organizations and international institutions, including the United Nations and World Bank, throughout the world and with a particular focus on Latin America, South East Asia and the MENA region.

    Riva has held an adjunct appointment at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs and been a faculty member in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University and at the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo. She has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and held Fulbright-Hays and David L. Boren Scholarships for work in Guatemala. Dr. Kantowitz earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in Social-Organizational Psychology and International Conflict Resolution (2006).

  • Kimberly Pfeifer

    Kimberly Pfeifer is the Head of Research at Oxfam America, where she oversees the production of research and trends analysis. She serves as the editor of Oxfam America's Research Backgrounder Series and is a member of the organization's Gender Resource Group. Kimberly co-founded and co-leads the Oxfam Confederation's Research Network.

    She has written a number of Oxfam International Policy Briefing Papers focused on trade and agricultural issues, and has managed numerous research projects, including on issues of biotechnology, the future of agriculture, food security, agricultural innovation, trade, extractive industries, and economic inequality.

    Prior to joining Oxfam, Kimberly worked for the AFL-CIO as a researcher with the Center for Strategic Research in Corporate Affairs. She has also worked for the Aga Khan Foundation in Zanzibar, Tanzania. While in Tanzania, Kimberly held a Research Fellowship with the Institute of Development Studies, University of Dar es Salaam. She received her MA and PhD from the University of Florida in Political Science and African Studies. She has a number of publications and papers critiquing models of development, and on land and natural resource politics.

  • Herman Brouwer

    Herman Brouwer is a senior advisor at Centre for Development Innovation (CDI) at Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands, working on multi-stakeholder engagement for sustainable and inclusive agriculture. He advises, trains and coaches professionals across sectoral boundaries on how to contribute to sustainable development through collaboration. As an accredited Partnership Brokering Association (PBA) partnership broker, Herman is supporting local and global partnerships, mainly in food security and natural resource management, in more than 25 countries. He divides his time between governments, companies, civil society organisations and research institutions.

    He is lead author of the acclaimed MSP Guide: How to design and facilitate multi-stakeholder partnerships, which has been referred to as an "invaluable management tool for identifying the core principles, tools and considerations needed to optimise your organisation's approach to engagement". This publication is based on more than a decade of experience of CDI's team in providing training and advisory services to policy makers and practitioners in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Prior to working with CDI Herman worked with various NGOs and donors in international development. Six years of international experience in Cambodia and Nepal contributed to his practical approach to working with multiple stakeholders.

    Recent work of Herman Brouwer includes working with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government of Mozambique, Dutch development NGOs such as ICCO and Cordaid, UN Global Compact, World Wildlife Fund-UK, the World Bank Group, some companies. Besides Wageningen University, he also regularly conducts guest lectures at Radboud University Nijmegen, Clingendael Institute The Hague (training of diplomats in foreign service), and the Young Expert Programme (YEP), which prepared young professionals for international development positions in the sector of water and agro-food.

  • Fred Tanner

    Fred Tanner is currently Senior Adviser to the Crisis Management Centre of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bern, Switzerland. From September 2013 to December 2016 he was Senior Adviser to the OSCE Secretary General in Vienna and OSCE Project Leader of the ''Panel of Eminent Persons for European Security as a Common Project''. Throughout this period, he also served on the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.

    He previously served as Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) for seven years and was Deputy Director and Head of Academic Affairs at GCSP prior to assuming the directorship. He spent four years in Malta as Director and Resident Professor at the
    Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies. From 2006-2016 the Swiss Federal Government granted Fred Tanner twice with the title of Ambassador for his various responsibilities. Among other duties, Fred Tanner was a member of the High-level Panel on Early Warning and Rapid Reaction of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), he served on the Foundation Council of the Gulf Research Center (GRC) in Dubai and was a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the NATO Defense College (NDC) from 2010-2013.

    Fred Tanner holds a PhD and a Master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a Bachelor's degree from the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies at the University of Geneva.

  • Barbara Smith

    Barbara Smith has over 20 years of experience in international development, working with the US government, think tank, international organization and non-profit sectors. Ms. Smith has held a number of senior government positions, including at the U.S. Agency for International Development(USAID) as Deputy Assistant to the Administrator in the Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning and as USAID's Deputy Coordinator for Middle East Transition Response(Arab Spring).

    In addition, she served on the National Security Staff at the White House as a Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs and as an adviser in USAID's Office of Democracy and Governance and in its strategic planning, transition and policy offices.

    Outside of government Ms Smith was the Asia Foundation's Senior Director for Governance and Law and worked in various capacities overseas, including as Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Bosnia, as Deputy Country Representative for the Asia Foundation in Afghanistan, and as a Media Adviser to the OSCE in Bosnia.

  • Anne-Marie Buzatu

    Anne-Marie Buzatu is Deputy Head of the Operations IV division (Public-Private Partnerships) at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) in Geneva, Switzerland.

    Ms. Buzatu led the development of the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers (ICoC - January 2009-November 2010). She also led the elaboration and creation of the ICoC Association (ICoCA), a multi-stakeholder governance and oversight mechanism for the ICoC, which began operations in September 2013, and continues to support the ICoCA in a senior advisory capacity.

    She has also worked to develop implementation tools for the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, including the Addressing Security and Human Rights Challenges in Complex Environments Knowledge Hub, and Toolkit. Jointly developed with the ICRC, these tools are designed to provide practical Voluntary Principles-consistent guidance to large multinational companies (primarily extractives) for their security arrangements.

    Additionally, she is currently developing a thematic program on cyber security / internet governance within DCAF, and is also working in the context of the Geneva Internet Platform to support the development of multi-stakeholder approaches to cyber / internet governance.

  • Jason Pielemeier

    Jason Pielemeier is Special Advisor and Head of the Internet Freedom, Business, and Human Rights Section in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.   Before joining State, Jason worked for a law firm and a federal judge in New York City. Jason grew up in the Foreign Service, graduated from Northwestern University, served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala, and got his law degree at Yale.

  • Hardy Merriman

    Hardy Merriman is president of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. He has worked in the field of civil resistance since 2002. He studies, presents, and writes about grassroots movements nonviolently fighting for human rights and political change around the world. He leads workshops for activists and organizers in these movements; speak about these movements with academics, journalists, and members of NGOs; and develop resources for practitioners and researchers in the field of nonviolent conflict. He also also directs the James Lawson Institute, an eight-day intensive program for North American organizers and activists focusing on nonviolent civil resistance.

    Prior to being president of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), he was vice president and director of content development from 2012-2014, a senior advisor from 2007-2012, and director of programs and research from 2005-2007. From 2002-2005, he worked at the Albert Einstein Institution. He has contributed to the books Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback? (2015), Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East (2010) by Maria Stephan (ed.), and Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential (2005) by Gene Sharp. He has also written about the role of nonviolent action in countering terrorism and co-authored A Guide to Effective Nonviolent Struggle, a training curriculum for activists.

    He is also an advisor to the Digital Activism Research Project and on the board of advisors of the War Prevention Initiative.

  • Claudia Paz y Paz

    Dr. Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey served as Guatemala's first female Attorney General. She is a criminal law specialist, scholar, judge and litigator, who has worked for over eighteen years to strengthen the justice system in her country. She earned her doctorate in human rights and criminal law, served as a judge, and was the national consultant to the UN Mission in Guatemala.

    In 1994, she founded the Institute for Comparative Criminal Studies of Guatemala, a human rights organization that promotes restorative justice and protects the rights of marginalized and discriminated groups during criminal proceedings.

    Dr. Paz y Paz Bailey assumed leadership of Guatemala's Ministerio Publico (Prosecutor's Office) in December 2010. She served until May 2014 and pursued cases against the perpetrators of massive human rights abuses and against organized criminals. More drug traffickers were arrested in the first six months of her term than in the previous 10 years. Under her leadership, five of Guatemala's 10 most wanted criminals were caught, and 10 times more cases of violence against women and homicide were resolved than in any previous administration.

  • Erin Mazursky

    Erin Mazursky is the Co-Founder and President of Rhize, a new venture that is creating new ways for people and communities to build collective power to create more participatory democracies around the world. Erin brings over a decade of experience in movement-building, technology and advocacy to her work, having worked with social and political movements around the world, including in Turkey, India, and Albania.

    Erin started Rhize after serving as a strategist at Purpose, a social enterprise that incubates and launches global social and consumer movements. There, Erin helped to lead some of Purpose's biggest projects, most notably with the American Civil Liberties Union and CARE International, which integrated movement-building, technology and citizen advocacy to increase the social impact. Prior to this, Erin worked for President Obama's 2008 election campaign and went on to serve as the Youth Advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she helped author the first global policy on youth development and made youth a central part of the Agency's broader development efforts.

    Erin got her start as Co-Founder and Executive Director of STAND, a leading organization in the anti-genocide advocacy movement. She is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, a 2010 fellow at New Leaders Council, blogger at the Huffington Post and a Fellow at the Truman National Security Project.

  • Maria J. Stephan

    Dr. Maria J. Stephan is a senior policy fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, where she focuses on the dynamics of civil resistance and their relevance for violent conflict prevention and democratic development. Previously, Stephan was lead foreign affairs officer in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO), where she worked on both policy and operations. Her last assignment entailed engaging the Syrian opposition in Turkey. Earlier, she was detailed to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan to focus on subnational governance and civil-military planning.

    Prior to government service, Stephan directed policy and research at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), a DC-based NGO dedicated to developing and disseminating knowledge about nonviolent struggle. She was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and American University’s School of International Service. Stephan is the editor of Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization and Governance in the Middle East (Palgrave, 2009), a co-editor of Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback? (Atlantic Council, 2015) and the co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (Columbia University Press, 2011). The latter book was awarded the 2012 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Prize by the American Political Science Association for the best book published in political science and the 2012 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

    Stephan has worked with the European/NATO policy office of the U.S. Department of Defense, and at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. She received both Harry S. Truman and J. William Fulbright scholarships. She holds doctoral and master’s degrees from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a bachelor’s degree from Boston College. Stephan is from Clarendon, Vermont.

  • General George W. Casey, Jr.

    General George W. Casey, Jr. became the 36th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army on 10 April 2007. In his previous assignment, he was the Commander, Multi-National Force – Iraq, a coalition of over thirty countries, from 01 July 2004 until 10 February 2007. General Casey was commissioned a second lieutenant of Infantry from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1970. Throughout his career, he has served in operational assignments in Germany, Italy, Egypt, Southwest Asia and the United States. He has commanded at every level from platoon to Division.

    His principal staff assignments have been as a Chief of Staff, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; Operations Officer and Chief of Staff, V (US/GE) Corps, Heidelberg, Germany; Deputy Director for Politico-Military Affairs, Joint Staff, Commander, Joint Warfighting Center/J7, US Joint Forces Command, Director Strategic Plans and Policy and Director of the Joint Staff and 30th Vice Chief of Staff, United States Army.

    He commanded a mechanized infantry battalion at Fort Carson, Colorado; a mechanized infantry brigade at Fort Hood, Texas; served as Assistant Division Commander for Maneuver and Support in the 1st Armored Division in Bosnia and Germany; and commanded the 1st Armored Division in Bad Kreuznach, Germany. General Casey holds a Masters Degree in International Relations from the University of Denver and has served as a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States.

  • Dean Piedmont

    Mr. Piedmont graduated from the University of Denver's Graduate School of International Studies in 2002, now the Josef Korbel School, with an MA in International Administration.  Since then he has become a seasoned program and policy expert in conflict prevention, peacebuilding, recovery livelihoods, and reintegration specializing in DDR for 12 years including economic, political, psychosocial, social reintegration, youth and gender.  He has served with government, bilateral and NGOs including 10 years with UNDP from 2004-2014.  Prior to entering UNDP, Dean worked with the Research Triangle Institute in Iraq leading institutional assessments for youth government departments, directed humanitarian operations for NGOs in northern provinces of Afghanistan, as well as served in Sierra Leone as a DDR Program Manager for the Child Protection Unit with The International Rescue Committee. 

    Upon entering UNDP, he served from 2004-2006 in Afghanistan as the DDR Deputy Senior Programme Advisor assisting in the development of the Commander Incentive Programmes, SALW and Heavy Weapons Reduction Projects and the Disbandment of Illegally Armed Groups effort.  While in South(ern) Sudan in 2007-2008, he held the positions of DDR Deputy Regional Coordinator under the direction of DPKO and Specific Needs Group Reintegration Manager under UNDP.  In 2009, Dean joined UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) in HQ New York where he held a portfolio of 22 DDR and related stabilization programs globally.  He served as the lead training coordination and facilitator partnering with DPKO, the World Bank, Folke Bernadotte Academy, Norwegian Defense College, The Monterey Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction Studies and the KAITPC in Ghana.  As the reintegration focal person for BCPR he co-chaired the Inter-Agency Working Group on DDR, marshaling several Integrated DDR Standard modules through production and validation.  Dean spearheaded UNDP’s efforts in political reintegration and armed group transformation, until he left UNDP at the end of 2014 to take a position as the Managing Director for the Peacebuilding, Reintegration and Stabilization Assessment Groupé.  In this capacity he continues to support DDR working with UNAIDS and the African Union, as well as designing and teaching courses as an adjunct professor in US based universities.