Through December 2024, I served as the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Social Movements Advisor, the first such position in the U.S. government. I am a Ph.D. candidate and the Topol Fellow in Nonviolent Resistance at The Fletcher School where I teach and research social movements. My dissertation is titled “Dollars and Dissent: Donor Support for Grassroots Organizing and Nonviolent Movements.”

Currently, I am a Term Member in the Council on Foreign Relations, a Truman National Security Fellow, and a Research Fellow with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. During the 2020-2021 academic year, I was a USIP – Minerva Peace and Security Scholar. During the 2021 calendar year, I was a Graduate Research Fellow at the Harvard Program on Negotiation. During 2022, I served as International Collective Action and Social Movements Expert consultant for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

I hold a M.P.A. from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and a B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago. I have served as a Program Officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative, an electoral observer with The Carter Center, and a board member of the University of Chicago’s Human Rights Program. I co-directed Darfurian Voices, the first public opinion survey of refugees from Darfur on issues of peace, justice, and reconciliation.

My publications include “Nonviolent Resistance,” “Surviving Success: Nonviolent Rebellion in Sudan,” and “The Founding Myth of the United States of America.” My teaching includes “From Gandhi to the Arab Spring: Theory and Practice of Nonviolent Resistance.” I’m the father of twin girls and husband of Nadia Marzouki.