Professional Development Series

Alyssa Best is an independent career coach and a part-time career advisor at American University. She opened her practice in 2009 to support non-profit professionals. Since then, she has expanded her focus to serve clients undergoing career transitions in diverse industries and sectors, including foreign policy. At AU, she advises students and alumni and offers guidance on resume writing and interviewing. Previously, Alyssa worked in non-profit program management and advocacy at The OpEd Project, Wider Opportunities for Women, Center for Progressive Leadership, and Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership. She is passionate about helping individuals identify their dream careers and providing them with the tools to achieve their goals. She has a certificate in personal development coaching and an MA in Women’s and Gender Studies from Rutgers.

Nadia Crevecoeur is a Government & Public Services Analyst at Deloitte Consulting. She currently supports USAID’s Workforce Transformation project, and consults pro-bono for non-profits in the DC area. Previously, Nadia served as the Senior Program Assistant at Women In International Security (WIIS), worked in the special victim’s unit of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, and researched measuring UN peacekeeping success with the Global Governance Institute in Brussels. Nadia received a BA from the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs with a concentration in Conflict Resolution.

Kim Kahnhauser Freeman is the executive director of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, a non-profit organization which promotes women’s leadership and amplifies their voices in international affairs. Since joining the WFPG team in 2006, she has held roles of increasing responsibility supporting the organization’s global issues programs, membership outreach, mentoring initiatives, and strategic development. Previously, Kim was a Fulbright teaching fellow in Tirol, Austria, and researched public housing for the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service in DC. Kim was a 2011 State Department Young Turkey/Young America Fellow, and holds a BS in International Politics from Georgetown and an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Sarah Bruno, is the Executive Director of the Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN), providing program and administrative oversight to the organization. Prior to PLEN, Sarah consulted with nonprofit organizations to help them improve their operations and fundraising strategies. Previously, Sarah served as the Chief Operating Officer at the Truman National Security Project & Center for National Policy, National Development Director at America Votes and a Development Writer at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Before coming to Washington D.C., Sarah worked as Development Coordinator at the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A lifelong feminist and long-time advocate for social justice, Sarah holds a Master’s degree in macro social work from Boston University and a B.A. in Anthropology with a Women’s Studies concentration from Haverford College.

Nadia Crevecoeur has 25+ years in converged, global, information technology, cybersecurity, physical security, as well as risk management across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia. She has been cited in many professional publications and is widely recognized as a leader in the Security Technology industry. She currently serves as the cybersecurity and business development lead at Jaros, Baum & Bolles where she focuses on promoting cybersecurity, physical security, and technology as an integral part of all building technology systems. She currently serves as Chair of SIA’s Cybersecurity Advisory Board and Vice-Chair of SIA’s New Product Showcase Committee, the Advisory Board for SecuritySpecifiers, as well as Co-President of Women In International Security – NY Chapter.

Dr. Nancy Lubin is President of JNA Associates, Inc, a research and consulting firm focused on the former USSR, especially the Caucasus and Central Asia. She has consulted for over 80 private foundations, international organizations, US government agencies/contractors, the media, NGOs, law firms and Fortune 100 corporations. For over 25 years, Nancy has also conducted salary negotiation and career seminars, as well as one-on-one career advising. Previously, she served as Soviet specialist and project director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment; associate professor at Carnegie Mellon; one of the first women Fellows at the Wilson Center; consultant, ABC News; and elsewhere. She holds a PhD from Oxford, a BA from Harvard, and studied in Moscow, Leningrad, and Tashkent. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has served on several boards.

Dr. Chantal de Jonge Oudraat has served as President of Women In International Security (WIIS) since February 2013. Prior to joining WIIS, she was the founding and executive director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) North America. Her previous positions include senior advisor to the U.S. Institute of Peace Center for Gender and Peacebuilding; associate vice president and director of the USIP Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program; adjunct associate professor at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service; and senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins SAIS. Her areas of specialization include women, peace and security, international organizations, arms control and disarmament, and peacekeeping. She did her undergraduate studies at the University of Amsterdam and received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Paris II (Panthéon).

Jennifer Hawkins is a Senior Women, Peace, and Security Advisor in USAID’s Bureau of Conflict, Prevention, and Stabilization (CPS). She joined USAID in 2014 as a Democracy Fellow. Prior to joining USAID, Jennifer served as a Gender and Policy Advisor at the State Department’s Bureau of Conflict Stabilization Operations, where she led the implementation of the Bureau’s Gender Policy and the National Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. In 2013, she served as the first US secondee to Justice Rapid Response, an intergovernmental organization in Geneva, where she worked to increase multilateral diplomacy on atrocity prevention and develop a global “rapid response” capacity within Rule of Law and Sexual Gender-Based Violence. During her five years at the State Department, she also served in the Bureau of West African Affairs as Desk Officer for Burkina Faso and Niger, and as the Special Assistant in the Bureau of African Affairs. Jennifer holds a BS from Syracuse and a MSW, with a concentration in children and policy, from Howard, and is currently a Doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California.

Erin McGown joined the Department of Justice in March as a Program Analyst on the Africa team in the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training (OPDAT). Before joining DoJ, Erin served in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Georgia, where she advised a small NGO focused on local democracy development; authored, implemented, and closed out a Let Girls Learn grant for a Peace Corps-led camp for youth; and designed and implemented trainings related to gender equality. Erin also served as a Communications and Outreach Program Specialist at USAID, which she joined as an intern. She also interned at the Department of State’s Office of UN Political Affairs, the German Marshall Fund and the Women’s Foreign Policy Group. Prior to moving to DC, she worked for the City of Boise Mayor’s Office and South Sound YMCA in Olympia, Washington. Erin holds a Masters in International Affairs at the George Washington University’s Elliott School and a BA from the University of Idaho in International Studies and German.

Lindsay Rodman is Executive Director of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS). She began her career as an associate at Arnold & Porter LLP. Lindsay then joined the Marine Corps and served as a judge advocate for eight years, including deployment to Afghanistan, serving as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as a White House Fellow at the National Security Council. After transitioning into the Reserves, Lindsay was a political appointee in the Pentagon, serving first as the Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness and then as the Senior Advisor, International Humanitarian Policy in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Prior to joining LCWINS, Lindsay was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in Canada and worked at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Lindsay remains an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Kennedy School, and Duke.

Sharon Swabb is a Career Coach at George Washington University’s Elliott School, where she manages GW’s mentorship program with USIP and the Elliott School’s graduate-level, cross-cultural exchange program with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to arriving at GW, Sharon served as an Associate Director in the White House Presidential Personnel Office, where she contributed to the recruitment, placement, and retention of political appointees at national security agencies. Previously, she was a Press Assistant in the Office of Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. Before her work in the Federal Government, she was a research fellow at GovLoop, served as a program assistant for the DC semester programs of the University of Georgia and NYU, was a volunteer staff member for Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. Sharon is a member of the Robertson Foundation for Government. She holds a BA in International Affairs and Spanish from the University of Georgia and a Master’s in Pacific International Affairs from UC San Diego.

Kim Kahnhauser Freeman is the executive director of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, a non-profit organization which promotes women’s leadership and amplifies their voices in international affairs. Since joining the WFPG team in 2006, she has held roles of increasing responsibility supporting the organization’s global issues programs, membership outreach, mentoring initiatives, and strategic development. Previously, Kim was a Fulbright teaching fellow in Tirol, Austria, and researched public housing for the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service in DC. Kim was a 2011 State Department Young Turkey/Young America Fellow, and holds a BS in International Politics from Georgetown and an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Barrie Freeman is the deputy and political director of the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office. Prior to her appointment in 2018, she served as the Chief of Staff for the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), and before that as the Mission’s Political Affairs Director. Before joining the UN, she managed democracy and governance programs at NDI, first in Central and West Africa and then later in North Africa in the wake of the Arab Spring. Freeman spent 15 years with the State Department, working in Tunisia, Morocco, Lesotho, and Nigeria. In Washington, she served in the Office of the Inspector General and in the Office of African Analysis as the chief political analyst for Nigeria and other West African countries. While at the State Department, she earned the Department’s Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards, as well as a Distinguished Analyst Award.

Reta Jo Lewis is a Senior Fellow and Director of Congressional Affairs at The German Marshall Fund. She joined GMF in 2015, as a Senior Resident Fellow with the Transatlantic Leadership Initiative Program. During the Obama Administration, she served as the State Department’s first Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs, where she focused on building peer-to-peer relationships between the Department, state and local officials, and their foreign counterpart, and was awarded the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award for her work. Previously, she was the Director of Business Outreach for the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team. Earlier in her career, she served as the Vice President and Counselor to the President at the US Chamber of Commerce, Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, Of Counsel at Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP, and as a Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton. In 2014, Lewis ran for mayor of DC. She began her career as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Wanida Lewis has directed programs and strategic partnerships for Environment360 in Accra, Ghana. Previously, she was a senior economic evaluation program analyst at the Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues. Lewis completed a fellowship as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow working in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. During her fellowship, she founded Young, Gifted, & Brown, LLC, a pipeline program supporting young Ghanaian women and entrepreneurs in STEM. Lewis was named by New America as one of the thirty-five “Black American National Security in 2018, and Foreign Policy Next Generation Leaders” and is a 2019 Young Professionals in Foreign Policy “Gender Issues in Foreign Policy Fellow.”

Wenchi Yu is the Head of Global Public Policy at VIPKid, an education technology platform company. In this role, she launched the social impact initiative and VIPTeach.org, a non-profit seed funded and incubated by VIPKid to promote equitable access to education through technology. She is a Nonresident Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and a life member of Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to VIPKid, Yu was the Head of Corporate Engagement for Goldman Sachs in Asia, where she led strategic philanthropy for stakeholder engagement and social impact in Asia. Before joining the private sector, she was a senior advisor on global women’s issues at the Department of State, and conducted research on rule of law and civil society development for the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. She began her career working for various nonprofit organizations on women’s rights, human trafficking, and immigrant issues.

Chantal de Jonge Oudraat has served as President of Women In International Security (WIIS) since February 2013. Prior to joining WIIS, she was the founding and executive director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) North America. Her previous positions include senior advisor to the US Institute of Peace Center for Gender and Peacebuilding; associate vice president and director of the USIP Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program; adjunct associate professor at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service; and senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins SAIS. Her areas of specialization include women, peace and security, international organizations, arms control and disarmament, and peacekeeping. She did her undergraduate studies at the University of Amsterdam and received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Paris II (Panthéon).

Scott Morgan has been teaching leadership and communication skills for over 30 years. His clients include scientists, policy makers, graduate students and global corporations. Scott also teaches media and communication strategy to many think tanks and research organizations around the world. He is a Senior Associate at the Leadership Academy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), graduated with honors from the University of California Davis, and holds a master’s degree in psychology from Columbia University. He authored the book Speaking about Science published by Cambridge University Press (2006) and launched a mindfulness app for young adults called 3rdi in 2014. www.MorganGp.com

Rebecca E. Webber GaudiosiA scientist turned diplomat, Dr. Rebecca E. Webber Gaudiosi represented the United States at the UN from 2006 to 2014. She was responsible for US engagement with over twenty-five environment-related multilateral organizations and agreements and also led on sustainable development issues at the UN General Assembly, including Rio+20. Dr. Gaudiosi has also worked with several UN specialized agencies and on bilateral environment and science issues.

Jimena Leiva-RoeschFrom 2009 to 2015, Jimena Leiva-Roesch was at the Permanent Mission of Guatemala to the UN in New York. She was the lead negotiator on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), playing a key role in defining the SDGs. She was also part of Guatemala’s Security Council team from 2012-13, when her country served as a non-permanent Council member. Ms. Leiva-Roesch is currently a Senior Fellow with the International Peace Institute where she leads a global study on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Ye-Min WuYe-Min Wu has worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore for over a decade. While at the Permanent Mission of Singapore to the UN in New York, she chaired UN negotiations and represented the Group of 77 and China in negotiations on sustainable development issues. She was also involved in climate change negotiations under the UNFCCC. Ms. Wu is currently Singapore’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization and World Intellectual Property Organization

Elizabeth A. Stanley, PhD, is an associate professor of security studies at Georgetown University. She is the award-winning author of two books, Paths to Peace and Widen the Window: Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive during Stress and Recover from Trauma. She is also the co-editor (with Risa Brooks) of Creating Military Power. She speaks, teaches, and writes about resilience, decision-making, political psychology, civil-military relations, technology and innovation, and international security.

Min Kyriannis has 25+ years in converged, global, information technology, cybersecurity, physical security, as well as risk management across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia. She has been cited in many professional publications and is widely recognized as a leader in the Security Technology industry. She currently serves as the cybersecurity and business development lead at Jaros, Baum & Bolles where she focuses on promoting cybersecurity, physical security, and technology as an integral part of all building technology systems. She currently serves as Chair of SIA’s Cybersecurity Advisory Board and Vice-Chair of SIA’s New Product Showcase Committee, the Advisory Board for SecuritySpecifiers, as well as Co-President of Women In International Security – NY Chapter.

Beth Solomon serves as Managing Director of External Affairs and Development for CARE USA, a global humanitarian and development organization dedicated to defeating poverty and fighting for women and girls. Before joining CARE, she worked on the staff of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, as Vice President of the Government Practice of US Bank Global Corporate Trust, and spearheaded strategic initiatives at the International Franchise Association and the National Association of Manufacturers. Beth began her career as a reporter for the Voice of America, based in Nairobi, Kenya. She reported for ABC News and Radio France International on the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first free elections in post-Soviet East Europe. She holds a BA from Yale and pursued graduate studies in the National Security Studies at Georgetown.