Dr. Chantal de Jonge Oudraat is President of Women in International Security (WIIS) since February 2013.

She was the founding and executive director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) North America (2012-2014).  Previous positions include: senior advisor to the U.S. Institute of Peace Center for Gender and Peacebuilding; associate vice president and director of the U.S. Institute of Peace Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program;  adjunct associate professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; and senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. She has also held senior positions at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC; and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva.

Her areas of specialization are: women, peace and security, gender, international organizations, arms control and disarmament, terrorism and countering violent extremism, peacekeeping, use of force, economic sanctions, U.S.-European relations.

Dr. de Jonge Oudraat is co-editor of The Gender and Security Agenda: Promoting Equality and Peace in the 21^st Century (forthcoming 2019); Women and War: Power and Protection in the 21st Century (USIP Press, 2011); and Managing Global Issues: Lessons Learned (Carnegie Endowment, 2001).

Other recent publications include: “ WPS+GPS: Adding Gender to the Peace and Security Equation,” WIIS Policy Brief (November 2017); “Women, Gender and Terrorism: The Missing Links, WIIS Policy Brief (August, 2016); “Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism: the Role of Women and Women’s Organizations” in A Man’s World (CGCS and Hedayah Center, 2016); “Women In Combat: Learning from Cultural Support Teams,” WIIS Policy Brief, (August, 2015);  The 1325 Scorecard-Gender Mainstreaming: Indicators for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 and its Related Resolutions (NATO/WIIS, 2015); “Peace and Security in the 21st Century: Understanding the Gendered Nature of Power” in Managing Conflict in a World Adrift (USIP Press, 2015); UNSCR 1325: “Conundrums and Opportunities,” International Interactions, (No.4, 2013);“Mostly Sunny, Partly Cloudy-The transatlantic forecast for the next four years,” Atlantisch Perspectief, (No. 8, 2012);   ”Play it Again, Uncle Sam: Transatlantic Relations, NATO and the European Union” in Rewiring Regional Security in a Fragmented World (USIP Press, 2011).

De Jonge Oudraat did her undergraduate studies at the University of Amsterdam and received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Paris II (Panthéon).

She is a Dutch and US national.

Dr. Ellen Haring is a senior fellow at Women in International Security where she directs the Combat Integration Initiative. Haring’s research and work focus on women and gender in the military. She is a West Point graduate and a retired U.S. Army colonel. She holds a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and she has taught at the US Army Command and General Staff College, the US Army War College, and Georgetown University. Haring has published numerous articles and papers on a wide array of military and security related topics. She has been a guest speaker on foreign and domestic news shows. She guest lectures and has testified before Congress.

Haring’s publications include:

“Make Women Register for the Draft” US News and World Report (June 22, 2016)
“Integration of Women Depends on Male Leaders” Army Times (May 2, 2016)
“Our Military Shouldn’t Turn Its Back on Servicewomen Who Need an Abortion” Huffington Post (April 30, 2016)
“Give Women All of the Rights of Citizenship, Including Selective Service” Task and Purpose (February 26, 2016)
“That Valor Isn’t Yours to Defend” Task and Purpose (March 18, 2015)
“Is the Marine Corps Setting Women Up to Fail in Combat Roles?” Cicero Magazine (February 18, 2015)
“Civilian leaders need to lead on women in combat,” The Hill Congress Blog, (February 5, 2015)
“A Snapshot: Two Years in to Combat Integration,” Women in International Security, (January 30, 2015)
“Dear Berkeley women: It’s time to lead the next revolution,” The Daily Californian, (August 26, 2014)
“The Sea of Sameness in PME” Joint Forces Quarterly (July 2014)
“Deck Stacked Against Women in Experimental Task Force” Marine Corps Times (July 6, 2014)
“Can Women Be Infantry Marines” War on the Rocks (May 29, 2014)
“Do Military Women Want Combat Jobs” Foreign Policy (April 24, 2014)
“Combat Integration: Good but not good enough” The Army Times (January 2014)
“Rangers are NOT Leading the Way” Foreign Policy (January 2014)
“A Col’s View of Commander’s Authority” Foreign Policy (September 2013)
“Women and the Audie Murphy Model,” Armed Forces Journal (August 2013)
“What Women Bring to the Fight,” Parameters, US Army War College (Summer 2013)
“To Stop Sexual Assault in the Military Add More Women,” Christian Science Monitor (June 24, 2013)
“The Army’s Disservice to Women,” The Washington Post (June 21, 2013)
“Insights from the Women in Combat Symposium,” Joint Forces Quarterly (June 2013)

Antonieta Rico is a fellow at Women in International Security. She holds a Master of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. Rico served for more than six years in the U.S. Army as a public affairs specialist/military journalist. She deployed to Iraq twice and embedded with infantry units during combat operations and day-to-day missions. She has worked as Deputy News Editor of Army Times and Navy Times reporting on training, deployment cycles, combat integration and quality of life issues. Her academic and professional focus is on the intersection of gender, security and the military.

Jeannette Gaudry Haynie is a Senior Fellow at Women in International Security (WIIS). She is a 1998 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. She currently serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserves, assigned to the Headquarters Marine Corps Strategic Initiatives Group, and is also a PhD candidate at the George Washington University writing her dissertation. An AH-1W Cobra attack helicopter pilot by trade who served through multiple overseas deployments in a variety of billets, she earned her MA in Political Science in 2011 from the University of New Orleans. She writes regular blog posts for the United States Naval Institute, the professional journal of the sea services, and has been published in Proceedings as well as quoted and interviewed in a variety of media due to her writing. Her research interests include gender inequality and resulting outcomes in the security sphere, and her dissertation work involves the role of gender inequality as an enabling condition of terrorism.

Dr. Karin L. Johnston is a Senior Fellow at WIIS and an Adjunct Professor at the School of International Studies at American University in Washington, D.C.  Her research interests include foreign and security policy analysis, U.S.-European relations, migration policy, conflict analysis, and security sector stabilization.  From 2017-2019, Dr. Johnston served as a Franklin Fellow in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO), focusing on conflict in fragile states, security sector development, and stabilization strategies.  She has worked in policy research institutes in Washington, D.C and has written on German policy decision-making on out-of-area operations, German public opinion during the Bosnian crisis and the Iraq war, and security sector reforms and Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) planning. Her current research includes projects on the securitization of Europe’s migration policy, democratic governance and use of military force, and cooperation between military and civilian components in multilateral peace and stability operations.  Fluent in German, Dr. Johnston was a Mercator Fellow at the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2014 and a former fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship Program.

International Expert in Gender, Peace and Security Policies Irene Fellin has worked for several international organizations for women’s rights and gender issues. Dr. Fellin lived in Ankara, where she collaborated with the local offices of UNICEF and UNPD. Her job in Turkey was to train and assist local staff on gender issues by analyzing issues such as domestic violence, honor killings and early marriages. She worked from 2013 to 2014 as Policy Advisor to the “NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security”, with the task of training the organization’s staff on WPS-related issues, and assisting NATO in the implementation of the Plan National for United Nations Resolution 1325. Since 2014, Dr. Fellin has been working as a Trainer at CoESPU – Center of Excellence for Police Stability, on gender issues, peace and security and sexual violence in armed conflicts and since 2015 she has been a research consultant on gender issues for the Institute of International Affairs (IAI).

Ana Laura Velasco Ugalde (Mexico) is a feminist security analyst and journalist currently studying for a Masters in Gender, Violence and Conflict at the University of Sussex. She also has worked as a researcher for a Mexican NGO focused on security, justice and the rule of law and has previously worked for the Mexican Secretariat of Economy with a posting in Germany. She holds a MA in International Law by the Universidad de Granada and did her undergraduate studies at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.

Dr Diorella Islas is an independent security and intelligence analyst and an adjunct faculty member in the Countering Transnational Organized Crime (CTOC) program at the Marshall Center since 2018.  She was instructor of mafia and organised crime culture at the Bader International Study Center of Queens University and member of the Steering Committee of the Standing Group on Organised Crime of the European Consortium for Political Research. She holds a PhD in Politics Languages and International Studies from the University of Bath.

For ten years, her area of expertise has been focused on understanding the expansive process of transnational organize crime and to the design and implementation of related national security policies. She did her Masters Degree in International Studies and her undergraduate degree in International Relations at the Tec de Monterrey, Mexico City.

Some of her recent publications include

The chapter “Guatemala: Organised Crime, fraud and politics” in the Handbook on Organised Crime and Politics. (2019) and the article “Coca leaf boom in Colombia: How it concerns us all” Per Concordiam v.9n.4.  (2019)

Kayla graduated with her Masters of International Affairs from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M in 2018 where she focused on Women, Peace & Security, Diplomacy, and Intelligence. She received her B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Civic Engagement from Brigham Young University. Kayla is a trained Analytical Researcher focusing on gender and national security, culture and narrative studies, Eastern European tribalism, and U.S.-China relations. She has presented her research to The U.S. State Department and The U.S. Institute of Peace and at numerous conferences. Kayla previously worked for the WomanStats Project contributing to publications, working with qualitative and quantitative data, and representing the Project at events such as Beijing+20/CSW59 at the United Nations. Kayla strongly believes in the importance of public service and cultural understanding. She speaks French, has lived in China, Germany, the UK, and France, and has traveled abroad extensively.

Roksana Verahrami graduated with a B.A. in Economics and International Affairs, with a concentration in international development from the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs in May 2020. She has previously worked with the Save Darfur movement, studying genocide and the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. She also worked on some the issues surrounding the ensuing refugee crisis from Sudan into neighbouring countries and abroad and helped organize an annual symposium designed to bring awareness to the situation in Darfur and its impact on women. Her interests also include studying the gendered dimensions of climate change, especially the intersectionality of race and class on these gendered dimensions, analysing the subversion or exploitation of traditional gender roles during times of violence, rebellion and war, and looking at how religious norms shape gender roles cross-culturally. She has also spent a semester studying at Trinity College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland studying international politics, economics and religion.

Zi Xue is the Program Assistant and Research Fellow at Women In International Security (WIIS). She received a M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, with a concentration in International Law and Organizations, and a B.A. in Political Science with minors in Gender Women Sexuality Studies and Studies in Cinema and Media Culture from the University of Minnesota. Zi’s research focuses on the role that international organizations play in international security; the relationship between gender equality and global security; and Foreign policies. She has previous experience in working at Cairo, Egypt; Cebu, Philippines; and Tbilisi, Georgia.

Susan is a Gender and Global Security Program Assistant at Women in International Security. She is currently an undergraduate student studying International Relations at American University with concentrations in Identity, Race, Gender and Culture and International Development with a minor in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her geographical area of focus within her International Relations studies is South Asia, and last spring Susan got the opportunity to study abroad in India. While there, she attended the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, further studying gendered violence and women’s advocacy in India. In addition, Susan interned at a local women’s liberation organization, Stree Mukti Sanghatana (SMS). Here she was able to pursue her own research regarding domestic violence and the importance of being able to identify domestic abuse. Furthermore, while at SMS, she worked on a sexual education program that was implemented within regional secondary schools.

Allyn Anderson is a gender and global security program assistant with WIIS. She is currently pursuing two bachelor’s degrees at the University of Maryland, one in international relations and the other in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology with a focus on studies of religion, French, Japanese, and Arabic.

Her interest in global and cultural studies began with a children’s book, “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Seuss.

“Everyone is just waiting.

NO!

That’s not for you!

Somehow you’ll escape

all that waiting and staying

You’ll find the bright places

where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,

once more you’ll ride high!

Ready for anything under the sky.

Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!”

Since she was a child, she’s always wanted to find those “bright places,” and even when the reality of finances made global travel difficult, she always turned to learning about the world through books, documentaries, and the people in her community who had been lucky enough to travel. She hopes to fill her 40-page passport in more ways than one, and learn how the world is now, has been, and can be.

Her interests in international security stemmed from a recent project in which she, and some friends from her school’s model UN team, hosted a mock congressional session to develop new approaches to law enforcement policies in the United States. During that project, she recognized that there were some incredibly deep-rooted flaws in the culture behind various law enforcement organizations that can, and should, be remedied to the benefit of both the public and those law enforcement organizations themselves.

In her free time, she loves to go on little adventures with her dog, Hugo, to local parks, restaurants, and dog-friendly bookstores.  She also enjoys reading declassified intelligence reports (yes, for fun) and hopes to one day see her name in the credits of a major intelligence report. After she graduates, she plans to work within the federal government, preferably within the intelligence community.