Since August 2023, I have 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 also 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 comprised of three essays: “Dollars and Dissent: Foundation Support for Social Movement Building,” “Liberating the ‘Enemy’ in South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid Struggle,” and “Surviving Success: Nonviolent Rebellion in Sudan.”

Currently, I’m a Visiting Scholar at SciencesPo, 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” 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.